Obtaining a sexual history from adolescent girls. A preliminary report of the influence of age and ethnicity.
This preliminary study was undertaken to explore the hypothesis that socioeconomic and racial, as well as medical, factors influence the physician's decision about obtaining a sexual history from an adolescent female. Sixty consecutive medical records of adolescent-age emergency room patients with acute abdominal pain were classified according to ethnic group and socioeconomic status and searched for evidence that a sexual history had been taken. The study revealed a much higher number of recorded sexual histories among blacks and Hispanics. Although the absence of such a history seemed to have little relationship to diagnostic accuracy, a sensitive selectivity in exposing acutely ill teenagers to possible embarrassing questions appeared to be reserved for white, middle-class teenagers.
Hunt
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AD
Mercer University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.
Litt
I F
IF
Loebner
M
M
D000005:Abdomen; D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008487:Medical History Taking; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States