Abstract

School-based health clinics (SBHCs) offer convenient, free, and much-needed health services to adolescents who have been shown to lack access to preventative care and treatment. With high rates of risky sexual behavior and associated negative health outcomes, SBHCs are particularly effective in providing sexual health services. This article presents results of a survey assessing support for such services through SBHCs. Data were collected using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) software. With significant differences found for each demographic variable assessed, findings document that the majority of participants supported offering all four sexual health services in both middle and high schools: STI/HIV testing, STI/HIV treatment, pregnancy testing, and providing condoms. These findings may be used to reduce barriers in providing SBHCs, advocate for policy change regarding SBHCs, add or expand current SBHCs, and support others in conducting similar studies hoping to document local support to implement these and other sexual health services. Although limited research shows that using local data can impact policy and facilitate local change, more studies are needed to explore the impact of using local data to implement change and further evaluate the impact of sexual health services through SBHCs.

摘要

校本健康诊所 (SBHC) 为无法获得预防保健和治疗的青少年提供方便、免费和急需的健康服务。由于高风险性行为和相关的负面健康结果发生率很高，SBHC 在提供性健康服务方面特别有效。本文介绍了一项评估通过 SBHC 对此类服务的支持的调查结果。使用计算机辅助电话采访 (CATI) 软件收集数据。由于每个评估的人口变量都存在显着差异，调查结果表明大多数参与者支持在初中和高中提供所有四种性健康服务：STI/HIV 检测、STI/​​HIV 治疗、妊娠检测和提供避孕套。这些发现可用于减少提供 SBHC 的障碍，倡导关于 SBHC 的政策变化，增加或扩大当前的 SBHC，并支持其他人进行类似的研究，希望记录当地对实施这些和其他性健康服务的支持。尽管有限的研究表明，使用本地数据可以影响政策并促进本地变革，但仍需要更多研究来探索使用本地数据实施变革的影响，并进一步评估通过 SBHC 提供的性健康服务的影响。