PurposeAdolescents frequently rely on emergency medical care, rather than using primary care providers (PCPs). Our objectives were to characterize a population of adolescents presenting to a large, urban emergency department (ED) and to examine the reasons why they present to the ED, rather than to their PCP's office.MethodsAdolescents ages 12 to 21 years and their parents/guardians were invited to participate and asked to complete a brief online survey. Demographic data and triage information were collected from electronic medical records.ResultsOf 203 participants, 66% (n = 134) had public insurance, and 40% (n = 82) were triaged as nonurgent. Nearly all (93%, n = 189) reported having a PCP or primary clinic. The most common reasons given for presenting to the ED were participant perception of illness requiring immediate care (34%), followed by PCP referral to the ED (21%). Those with public insurance (odds ratio = 4.44; 95% CI 2.01 to 9.81) or no insurance/unknown insurance status (odds ratio = 4.77; 95% CI 1.34 to 17.01) were more likely to be triaged as nonurgent than those with private insurance.ConclusionsMany adolescents in this study were triaged as nonurgent, with several participants perceiving they were acutely ill requiring immediate physician care. Further analyses revealed that private insurance was significantly associated with urgent triage status. Future studies could educate adolescents and families about appropriate use of the ED or examine PCP offices directly to determine practices for phone triage and ED referrals of adolescents. 相似文献
Understanding the process of recognising autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children is important, both for achieving timely identification of children's difficulties and for ensuring positive experiences for families. Professionals working in primary care services are suitably positioned to identify children requiring referral for diagnostic assessment of ASD through their early contact with children and their families. Speech and language therapists (SLTs) in particular are well situated to recognise ASD, as concerns regarding communication development are frequently raised by parents of children who later go on to receive an ASD diagnosis. This small-scale qualitative study aimed to explore primary care SLTs' experiences of recognising potential ASD in children. Five SLTs working in primary care services in the Republic of Ireland participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that participants were concerned with two key events: firstly, accurately recognising potential ASD in children; and secondly, discussing the possibility of ASD with parents. The SLTs' experiences of these events were found to be influenced by both individual and wider organisational factors. The findings are discussed in the context of the current literature on ASD identification and implications for practice are considered. 相似文献
Objective. This study aimed to identify cultural-level variables that may influence the extent to which adolescents from different cultural groups are dissatisfied with their bodies.
Design. A sample of 1730 male and 2000 female adolescents from Australia, Fiji, Malaysia, Tonga, Tongans in New Zealand, China, Chile, and Greece completed measures of body satisfaction, and the sociocultural influences on body image and body change questionnaire, and self-reported height and weight. Country gross domestic product and national obesity were recorded using global databases.
Results. Prevalence of obesity/overweight and cultural endorsement of appearance standards explained variance in individual-level body dissatisfaction (BD) scores, even after controlling for the influence of individual differences in body mass index and internalization of appearance standards.
Conclusions. Cultural-level variables may account for the development of adolescent BD. 相似文献