Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS)

The following are resources and materials related to adolescent clinical preventive services.

A GAPS Approach to Screening and Health Guidance for Suicide and Depression

Guidelines For Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) materials
The AMA's Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) is a comprehensive set of recommendations that  provides a framework for the organization and content of preventive health services. The GAPS recommendations were designed to be delivered ideally as a preventive services package during a a series of annual health visits between the ages of 11-21.

The GAPS Recommendations Monograph  (PDF, 337KB requires Adobe® Reader®) provides information on the 24 recommendations which are organized into four types of services that address 14 separate health topics or conditions.

GAPS implementation materials include downloadable PDF questionnaires that may be reproduced for your use in clinical practice. Please note that hard copies of these materials are no longer available.

• Younger Adolescent Questionnaire
  English (PDF, 29KB)
  Spanish (PDF, 287KB)

• Middle/Older Adolescent Questionnaire
  English (PDF, 310KB)
  Spanish (PDF, 24KB)

• Parent/Guardian Questionnaire
  English (PDF, 24KB)
  Spanish (PDF, 23KB)

A complete description of how the GAPS recommendations were developed, the clinical approach to a comprehensive preventive services visit, and the scientific justfication for each recommendation are contained in Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services by Arthur B. Elster, MD and Naomi J, Kuznets, PhD, (1994), Williams and Wilkins: Baltimore.