Adolescents talk about insufficient prevention through their general practitioner: A qualitative study

Background Adolescence is a period of empowerment and vulnerability that requires the early identification of risky behaviors to prevent them. Several prevention areas, including sexual health, mental health, substance use and addiction, diet, physical activity, orthopedic disorders, vaccinations, screen use, and social relationships, need to be addressed. Prevention plays an important role in primary care all over the World. Consultation between an adolescent and his or her general practitioner (GP) can be complex. While there are professional recommendations, they rarely address all prevention areas.

Aim This study aims to understand the prevention experience of adolescents during consultations with GPs.

Design and settings This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with French adolescents between 11 and 24 years old.

Method Analysis was conducted based on grounded theory and triangulated for the identification of conceptualizing categories.

Results Twelve interviews led to identify of three conceptualizing categories: (1) Prevention in adolescents is primary and multifaceted. (2) limited preventive involvement by the general practitioner: adolescents obtain information from other sources with varying influence on their behavior. (3) Adolescents tend to justify GPs’ limited preventive engagement.

Conclusion Adolescents trust their GP. Despite the use of different prevention sources, not all recommended topics are discussed with adolescents. Leveraging the experiences of adolescents, we can confirm that GP has to be more involved in prevention during consultation with adolescents. These consultations are complex, and it is necessary to offer support tools for GP and other primary healthcare professionals, based on the needs of adolescents.