Testicular Health in Adolescents A Qualitative Study

Young men have poor outcomes with torsion of testis due to late presentation to hospital. This study was designed to generate the hypothesis of why this is the case by exploring the views and experiences of young men and their families regarding testicular health, with a focus on the reaction to a new finding of testicular pain. We utilised qualitative methodology to generate a hypothesis.

This is the raw data generated from one on one interviews semi-structured interviews.

The young men were recruited from out of hours clubs utilising a range of contact methods. The target population were young men 11-19 years. The young men were allowed to choose a chaperone of their choice and were given a small incentive for taking part. All but one interview was conducted at home, participant 2 was conducted in hospital. All young men chose their parent or guardian as chaperone. Median age was 13 years (range 11-18 years). Demographics crossed the social strata in two regions on the UK. Racial demographic was more limited with all but one family white Caucasian.

All interviews were undertaken by the chief investigator between Dec 2015 to Dec 2017. The early interviews were also transcribed by the chief investigator and the later a professional transcription service. Hence the variation in transcription styles.

All families were asked if they were happy for the content of the recordings to made public following the interviews, and all signed a consent form affirming this. The project is IRAS registered and gained ethical approval: IRAS ID 167713 REC Ref 15/YH/0299.

The data has been analysed by the investigators using a thematic framework methodology, but could be open to other form of analysis. The authors were interested in why young men might delay to hospital, and once the finding of poor knowledge was established in early interviews, the project evolved to investigate what young people and their families feel are effective methods for testicular health education.