Reference no: EM133491990

Question: A patients age, race, lifestyle, and demographics can help guide how a provider cares for a patient. For example, if a sexually active 30-year-old female was being seen in the office for a well woman visit, a preventive mammogram, bone density scan and colonoscopy would not be indicated per the guidelines due to her age. However, a pap smear and HPV testing would be recommended per several of the governing bodies that create the preventive guidelines (U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, 2018). According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, females should start getting pap smears at age 21, every 3 years and until they are 65 years old if they have had 3 negative exams in a row and no cervical changes. Additionally, they recommend HPV testing start at age 30 and be performed every 5 years either in conjugation with pap smears or separately (The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2021). Lifestyle plays a role in caring for a patient because the provider will want to identify if the patient is sexually active, how many lifetime partners they have had, if they have ever been tested for sexually transmitted diseases, do they participate in recreational drug use, and if they have been subjected to intimate partner violence (CDC, 2022). Depending on the patients race and culture they could be opposed to taking certain medications such as birth control or accepting blood products, and as a provider these patient beliefs need to be respected.