Although adolescents have been identified as a critical target population for the prevention of alcohol use by the US Public Health Service and the US Congress, nationally representative data on the delivery of alcohol-related preventive services to adolescents does not exist. Primary care physicians are an important source for adolescent does not exist. Primary care physicians are an important source for adolescent health promotion, yet their rates of providing many preventive services are far below current recommendations. Rates also appear to vary by patients' ethnicity, a concern given the increasingly diverse ethnic composition of the youth population. Aims: The long- term goal of the research is to improve the factors that influence delivery patterns. The study will: 1) document patterns of alcohol prevention services delivery to adolescents; 2) identify characteristics of adolescents patients that are associated with variations in service delivery; 3) examine the role of physician and environmental factors in practice variation; and 4) identify promising avenues for increasing physicians~ compliance with delivering recommended services. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, we will examine physicians' provision of alcohol prevention services to adolescents. A national, representative, stratified random sample of 4000 family physicians and pediatricians will be surveyed by mail about their perceptions of social norms, patient and service-related attitudes, practice setting, institutional barriers, and their current practices with regard to the delivery of alcohol prevention services. Results: the study will assist in the develoopment of interventions designed to increase physicians~ delivery of preventive services and will provide valuable information to policy makers and those responsible for the allocation of scarce resources for prevention.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter