Delivering adolescent preventive services in an office setting.

Adolescence has long been recognized as a vulnerable period. Although several major medical professional organizations have published adolescent preventive care guidelines, regional and national surveys of youth, providers, and medical records all suggest many gaps exist in the delivery of recommended preventive services. In this article, we review the development of adolescent preventive health guidelines, describe current rates of preventive health screening and counseling, and explore barriers to delivery of preventive care for this age group.

Nonmedical use of prescription medications: an emerging risk behavior among rural adolescents.

Little is known about prescription medication abuse by rural youth. We surveyed 849 rural high school students and found that 34% reported lifetime nonmedical use of prescription medication higher than the 12% reported nationally. Boys and marijuana users had higher odds of nonmedical use of prescription medication than did girls or marijuana nonusers (odds ratio 1.

Adolescent substance use, sexual behavior, and metropolitan status: is "urban" a risk factor?

Purpose: To determine if urban youth ("metropolitan" status) are at greater risk of engaging in risk behaviors than suburban or rural youth.

Methods: We analyzed data on substance use and sexual risk behaviors from the national school-based Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) conducted in 1999, an anonymous questionnaire self-administered by students in grades 9 through 12. The national survey employs a multistage cluster sample to produce a nationally representative sample of high school students.