Preventive medicine is an expanding field as the value of delaying or averting illness and disease becomes increasingly appreciated. It costs less to prevent disease than it does to try to cure it and a healthier lifestyle reduces medical expenses in the long run.

The adolescent population represents a particularly important group for prevention efforts because their health habits can impact their lifelong wellbeing. Adolescents can benefit from a wide range of preventive services, including immunizations and regular screening for psychiatric disorders.

In addition, the adolescent years are a time of rapid growth and bodily development, including sexual maturation and progression. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are of particular concern for this age group in 2009 more than 400,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 gave birth and STDs account for most new infections among this population.

Many national organizations have developed guidelines and policies for adolescent health, including recommendations on preventive care. For example, the Institute of Medicine recommends that all adolescents receive a comprehensive set of preventive services and anticipatory guidance.

Despite this emphasis on preventive care for adolescents there are several barriers that have been identified to the delivery of these services. One major barrier is the decline in the number of primary care physicians who are trained to provide adolescent care. According to a recent report by the Association of American Medical Colleges, there is an increasing shortage of primary care physicians in the United States. This is especially true of physicians who specialize in preventive medicine, and in particular those who are trained to see teens.

Another challenge is that many primary care physicians are aging, and as they retire, there will be an even greater shortage of providers who are experienced in treating young adults. This is especially true for those who specialize in medical fields that have a high rate of adolescent visits, such as pediatrics, preventive medicine, family medicine, and internal medicine.

Lastly, although there are several studies that have assessed the delivery of preventive services for adolescents, there is little evidence regarding how these services are delivered in actual clinical practice. The present study was conducted to fill this knowledge gap. It is based on the MEPS survey of adolescents, which provides a unique opportunity to monitor the delivery of adolescent preventive services. However, the MEPS data used for this analysis have a few limitations. First, the time alone question does not assess whether sensitive topics were discussed; thus, the current findings may underestimate the extent to which these issues are addressed in clinical settings.

As such, the results of this study should be interpreted cautiously. However, the authors believe that their findings support the need for continued efforts to bring more adolescents into well care and to improve clinician delivery of adolescent preventive healthcare. They also highlight the need for further research on the best ways to deliver preventive care for adolescents. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and Pfizer.