The Effectiveness of Family Planning Clinics in Serving Adolescents

Data from surveys conducted by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) in 1981 have been used to create 3 indicators of the effectiveness of family planning clinics serving teenagers: the mean delay between 1st intercourse and 1st clinic visit (which for teenage clinic patients is 13.2 months); teenage patient retention (67%); and the average excess of patient satisfaction over dissatisfaction with clinic policies and services (33%). Clinics run by Planned Parenthood are more effective than other types of facility according to the mean delay indicator whereas other clinics such as those associated with community action programs and neighborhood health centers rank highest in levels of patient satisfaction and patient retention. All 3 measures indicate that clinics serving 1000-2499 family planning patients per year are more effective in serving teenagers than either smaller of larger clinics and that nonmetropolitan clinics are more effective in providing services than those in cities. Regression analysis shows that clinic administrators might take a number of actions to shorten the mean delay among teenagers between 1st intercourse and 1st clinic visit. These include offering community education programs for teenagers enlisting the support of local churches developing relationships with local youth groups opening the clinic curing evenings and weekends accepting more teenagers as walk-in patients and locating a clinic in or near neighborhoods where many teenagers live. 2 of the same factors--developing an active relationship with youth groups and opening the clinic to teenagers on evenings and weekends--were also found to be particularly effective in keeping teenagers as clinic patients. The range of services offered at the clinic and the socioeconomic conditions in the county served by the clinic have an impact as well. The satisfaction of the teenage patients with clinic policies and services appears to be determined primarily by the patients own characteristics. For example satisfaction with the clinic is lower when a larger proportion of teenage patients are nonwhite and satisfaction is higher when a larger proportion are students. In addition teenagers in counties where there are several different clinics to choose from are more satisfied with their selection. These results suggest that making an effort to reach teenagers and inform them may help clinics serve teenagers more effectively by shortening the length of time that teenagers delay their 1st clinic visit inducing more of them to return regularly and increasing their satisfaction with the clinics. (authors modified)