Voter Support for Offering Sexual Health Services through School-Based Health Clinics

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.