Physician Preferences for Universal Routine Depression Screening for Adolescents in Primary Care

What are the quantitative preferences of primary care physicians for different attributes of a routine universal adolescent depression screening strategy?In this survey study containing a discrete choice experiment among 181 physician respondents, top preferences were (1) accurately identifying depression cases and (2) shortening clinical appointment times. Physicians also preferred brief electronic administration and provision of a private screening area, and they reported willingness to spend 37 minutes per patient to reduce missed diagnoses (false negatives) from 10% to 5%.These findings suggest that health systems and payers should consider physicians’ preferences for accuracy and efficiency when determining strategies to implement national guidelines on universal depression screening during annual well-child care visits.

Corresponding Author: Tran T. Doan, PhD, MPH, Department of Health Systems, Management and Policy, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, 13001 E 17th Pl, Aurora, CO 80045-2570 (tran.doan@cuanschutz.edu).

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