Poster Introductions I--Patterns of Family Physician Utilization across Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Adolescent family physician utilization is distinct from adult care, in that the responsibility for access shifts from parents to adolescents as they move through this developmental stage. Adolescent health care utilization not only meets current health needs of adolescents, it also sets the stage for health and health care utilization in adulthood. This study’s objective was to determine the factors and health practices associated with family physician utilization (users versus non-users) and with intensity of use (low users versus high users) for each of the three adolescent age groups; early adolescence (n=4985), middle adolescence (n=8718) and young adults (n=6681). The study used data from Cycle 3.1 (2005) of the Canadian Community Health Survey accessed through the UWO Statistics Canada Research Data Centre. Nested logistic regressions were conducted with the two outcomes for each of the three age groups. Key findings included the association of the number of chronic conditions with utilization for early and middle adolescence but not for young adults, and the association of chronic conditions with intensity of use for all age groups. Provincial variation was seen, with adolescents from Quebec having lower odds of utilization and intensity of use than those from Ontario. Females had higher odds of being users and high users in middle adolescence and in young adulthood. Adolescents in all age groups without a regular medical doctor were much less likely to be users but no less likely to be high users. While some factors associated with utilization and intensity of use were common across adolescence, there were distinct factors that distinguished each of the three age groups. Bridget L. Ryan is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Family Medicine at the University of Western Ontario. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from UWO. Bridget’s research interests include primary health care; adolescent health care utilization and delivery; patient-centred care; and the analysis of large datasets. Her involvement in research includes: an analysis of the Canadian Community Health Survey examining adolescent health care utilization; an evaluation of a program integrating family physicians into acute home care; and the development of measures of health care provider patient-centredness. Moira Stewart, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Director of the Centre for Studies in Family Medicine at The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. She holds the Dr. Brian W. Gilbert Canada Research Chair in Primary Health Care. She is an epidemiologist who, for the past 28 years, has conducted research on primary care health services and on communication between patients and health professionals. She has published widely on the topic of Patient-Centered Care and has edited with Judith Belle Brown and Thomas R. Freeman an international series of books applying the patient-centred clinical method