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. 1991 Dec;81(12):1645–1648. doi: 10.2105/ajph.81.12.1645

Frequency and thoroughness of STD/HIV risk assessment by physicians in a high-risk metropolitan area.

B O Boekeloo 1, E S Marx 1, A H Kral 1, S C Coughlin 1, M Bowman 1, D L Rabin 1
PMCID: PMC1405261  PMID: 1746664

Abstract

The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends that all primary care physicians assess the sexually transmitted disease/human immunodeficiency virus (STD/HIV) risk of all adolescent and adult patients. To determine whether factors amenable to change through continuing medical education are associated with frequent and thorough STD/HIV risk assessment, a telephone survey of primary care physicians in the Washington, DC metropolitan area was conducted (n = 961). Thirty-seven percent of physicians reported regularly asking new adult patients about their sexual practices; 60% asked new adolescent patients. STD/HIV risk questioning was associated with physicians' confidence in their ability to help prevent HIV, comfort with discussing patients' sexual practices, and perception of a large STD/HIV problem in their practice. These findings suggest that continuing medical education should target improvement in physicians' sexual practice questioning skills.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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