OBJECTIVE: Assess the conditions for which adolescents would seek physician care.

METHOD: Anonymous questionnaires were completed by 179 subjects as part of a longitudinal study of risk-taking behaviors in middle school students. The students were asked what their most likely care-seeking action would be if they experienced each of a list of specific health problems that varied in type, duration, and severity. Responses were grouped into not seeking physician care versus seeking physician care. Health problems were categorized as: abnormal pubertal development, depression, genital infections, and potential life-threatening events. Gender-specific questions were used for problems involving puberty and genital infections. Propensity scores were calculated, by adding the number of responses indicating that physician care would be sought for the problems in that category and dividing by the number of potential responses for that category. Scores ranged from 0 (care would not be sought) to 1 (care would be sought for all health problems in that category).

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