Ambulatory Care: Where Are the Young Men?

Many clinical preventive services can be delivered in primary care settings, but these services can only be delivered there if patients are seen in such settings. Many young adults have preventive care needs (e.g., to address unhealthy substance use or sexually transmitted diseases). To characterize use of ambulatory care by young adults, researchers analyzed 52,709 visits by young adults (age range, 20–29) to 14,599 physician practices and 4363 ambulatory hospital practices in the U.S. from 1996 to 2006.

Young men had the lowest rate of annual use of ambulatory care (1.1 visits per capita), compared with women (2.3 visits per capita, excluding pregnancy visits) and younger (age range, 15–19) and older (age range, 30–39) men. Young men also …