title: Patient attitudes toward screening.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Physician organizations recommend screening for health care behaviors. Despite these recommendations, health care providers worry that questions on sensitive topics may not be accepted by their patients. To determine if there is a relationship between health care screening by providers and acceptance of that screening by patients, a survey of female patients was analyzed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two telephone surveys were conducted two years apart. Each was a cross-sectional sample of female patients over the age of 18 years who had been seen by their primary care provider (PCP) in the previous 12 months. Patients were asked if they had been screened for eight different health behaviors (exercise, smoking, use of alcohol or drugs, excessive stress, sexual functioning concerns, safety or violence in the home, guns in the home) in the past year. They were also asked about their attitudes toward screening for those behaviors by health care providers. Odds ratios were calculated for patients who both agreed that screening should occur and reported having been screened in the last year.
  
  
  RESULTS
  3,175 women were surveyed. There was high acceptance of routine screening for exercise (75%), smoking (72%), alcohol/drugs (68%), and stress (62%), but less for sexual functioning (40%), safety/violence (40%), or guns (23%). There was a higher likelihood of agreeing with routine screening if the patient reported having been screened in the past year: exercise (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.8-2.9), smoking (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.3-1.9), alcohol/drugs (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.9-2.7), stress (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.4-1.9), sexual functioning (OR 2.7, 95% CI 2.2-3.4), safety/violence (OR 3.4, 95% CI 2.8-4.2), and guns (OR 4.4, 95% CI 3.4-5.8).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Only women in established relationships with primary care providers were surveyed. The cross-sectional nature of the survey prevents determination of the causality of the relationship.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Women who had been screened for a health behavior had greater acceptance of routine screening for that behavior. Although further research is needed to determine the casual relationship, providers should not worry about offending their patients when screening for sensitive health behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest University, School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. dbonds@virginia.edu
authors.forename: Denise E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Bonds
authors.forename: Shellie D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weeks
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lichstein
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Burke
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Posey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D003625:Data Collection; D017579:Domestic Violence; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D009657:North Carolina; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*