Abstract
BackgroundHealth care in many countries entails long waiting times. Avoidable healthcare visits by young adults have been identified as one probable cause.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore healthcare providers' experiences and opinions about young adults' healthcare utilisation in the first line of care.MethodThis study used latent qualitative conventional content analysis with focus groups. Four healthcare units participated: two primary healthcare centres and two emergency departments. This study included 36 participants, with 4–7 participants in each group, and a total of 21 registered nurses and 15 doctors. All interviews followed an interview guide.ResultsData were divided into eight categories, which all contained the implicit theme of distribution of responsibility between the healthcare provider and the healthcare user. Young adult healthcare consumers were considered to be highly influenced by external resources, often greatly concerned with small/vague symptoms they had difficulty explaining and unable to wait with. The healthcare provider's role was much perceived as being part of a healthcare structure—a large organisation with multiple units—and having to meet different priorities while also considering ethical dilemmas, though feeling supported by experience.ConclusionHealthcare personnel view young adults as transferring too much of the responsibility of staying healthy to the healthcare system. The results of this study show that the discussion of young adults unnecessarily seeking health care includes an underlying discussion of scarcity of resources.Patient or Public ContributionThe conduct of this study is based on interviews with young adult patients about their experiences of seeking healthcare.
Highlights
Health care in many countries entails long waiting times
Throughout the interviews, there was an underlying and unexpressed theme regarding the distribution of responsibilities between healthcare users and healthcare providers (Figure 2)
Eight categories were coded from the data, all containing discussions of the distribution of responsibility depending on the situation
Summary
Health care in many countries entails long waiting times. Avoidable healthcare visits by young adults have been identified as one probable cause. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore healthcare providers' experiences and opinions about young adults' healthcare utilisation in the first line of care. Avoidable healthcare visits are well studied.[9,10,11,12] Part of that research indicates that a certain age group, young adults 20–29 years of age, accounts for a substantial proportion of the avoidable visits, all three types included, and that necessary actions should be aimed at them.[3,13,14,15] Research has shown that young adults in general prefer to seek health care over self‐care for minor illnesses.[16] As newcomers to adult health care, obtaining health care without an adult advocate, young adults may lack the experience and knowledge needed to handle symptoms. Health literacy is the capacity to access, understand, appraise and apply different types of health information to make decisions about health,[17] and has been shown to be associated with healthcare utilisation.[18]
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