Guidelines for adolescent well care: is there consensus?
OBJECTIVE
This paper reviews recent clinical guidelines for adolescent well care put forth by seven national organizations. It compares the guidelines recommendation by recommendation in order to assess consistency between them.


RESULTS
We found 102 specific preventive care recommendations that encompassed eight different domains. The only recommendations consistent in the seven guidelines are measuring height and weight with a physical exam, updating immunizations, and addressing general anticipatory guidance. The greatest inconsistencies were noted in specific recommendations in the behavioral/developmental and counseling/anticipatory guidance domains.


CONCLUSIONS
When compared recommendation by recommendation, we found that the guidelines for adolescent preventive care vary considerably. A unified set of guidelines may help reduce the number of conflicting recommendations and may increase provider confidence and adherence to adolescent-specific clinical guidelines.
Richmond
Tracy K
TK
Division of Adolescent Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. tracy.richmond@childrens.harvard.edu
Freed
Gary L
GL
Clark
Sarah J
SJ
Cabana
Michael D
MD
D000293:Adolescent; D032921:Consensus; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000592:standards; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States