Reference no: EM133908018

Question

The purpose of the study was to gain understanding of the health issues and needs of rural adolescents by listening to their voices and eliciting their personal perspectives. Rural counties in the USA are defined as having 6-19.9 persons per square mile. Methods: Focus group interviews were conducted with 65 adolescents aged between 13 and 19 years old, from four rural counties in the USA. These counties are medically underserved with one primary care physician per 3500 population. Grounded theory analysis was utilized to identify overarching themes. Results: Thematic content analysis revealed two themes of health issues - making healthy choices and lack of pro-social, health promoting role models - and four themes of health needs - privacy, reliable information, accessible health care, and prioritizing health. The findings that speak to the complexity of adolescent health go beyond the inability to access health care and may provide important information that can help mitigate some of the obstacles to adolescents accessing health care in rural settings. A main contributor to adolescents' health choices is the lack of positive role models. Adolescents look for role models in their parents, siblings, peers and adults in their communities. The absence of positive role models.