TY - JOUR
T1 - Adolescents’ perspectives and experiences of accessing general practitioner services
T2 - A systematic review
AU - Lawrence, Stephanie M.
AU - Saab, Mohamad M.
AU - Savage, Eileen
AU - Hegarty, Josephine
AU - FitzGerald, Serena
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
PY - 2025/9
Y1 - 2025/9
N2 - Adolescents face issues regarding physical health, mental health, sexual health, drug and alcohol problems, stress, and peer pressure. Little is known about adolescents’ help-seeking behaviours in relation to health concerns. The general practitioner (GP) is usually the first point of contact for adolescents. The aim of this systematic review was to identify, describe, and summarize evidence on barriers and enablers experienced by adolescents when accessing GP-led primary care services. Systematic searches using four electronic databases (PsycINFO, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and SocINDEX) were conducted and the quality of the included studies was appraised. Six studies were included in this review. Findings indicate that barriers to GP access relate to trust, confidentiality, privacy, and communication. Adolescents also reported barriers such as transport, cost, and lack of information. Adolescents reported enablers being services that are sensitive to their needs, healthcare professionals who understand them, and services that are flexible regarding out of hours access. Listening to and acting on the voice of adolescents is important to developing youth-friendly services.
AB - Adolescents face issues regarding physical health, mental health, sexual health, drug and alcohol problems, stress, and peer pressure. Little is known about adolescents’ help-seeking behaviours in relation to health concerns. The general practitioner (GP) is usually the first point of contact for adolescents. The aim of this systematic review was to identify, describe, and summarize evidence on barriers and enablers experienced by adolescents when accessing GP-led primary care services. Systematic searches using four electronic databases (PsycINFO, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and SocINDEX) were conducted and the quality of the included studies was appraised. Six studies were included in this review. Findings indicate that barriers to GP access relate to trust, confidentiality, privacy, and communication. Adolescents also reported barriers such as transport, cost, and lack of information. Adolescents reported enablers being services that are sensitive to their needs, healthcare professionals who understand them, and services that are flexible regarding out of hours access. Listening to and acting on the voice of adolescents is important to developing youth-friendly services.
KW - Adolescents
KW - general practice
KW - general practitioners
KW - health services accessibility
KW - physicians
KW - primary care
KW - systematic review
KW - teens
KW - youths
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85190804248
U2 - 10.1177/13674935241239837
DO - 10.1177/13674935241239837
M3 - Review article
C2 - 38629615
AN - SCOPUS:85190804248
SN - 1367-4935
VL - 29
SP - 734
EP - 754
JO - Journal of Child Health Care
JF - Journal of Child Health Care
IS - 3
ER -
