DePaul: Ounce of Prevention Study Finds School Clinics Effective

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CHICAGO, Sept. 19, 1996 -- A $500,000 federally funded study of school-based health centers in Chicago high schools has determined that the clinics were effective in reducing cigarette and marijuana use and detecting sexually transmitted diseases, but must increase mental health services to address widespread student depression.

Researchers at DePaul University, who conducted the study in collaboration with the Ounce of Prevention Fund, said the results have national social policy implications

About 550 health centers currently exist in schools across America. Researchers recommended that officials in city and suburban school districts consider the benefits clinics have for teens and establish them in their schools.

The Chicago study, conducted in 1993 and 1994, involved more than 2,000 African American freshmen and juniors in seven public high schools.

Principal investigator LaVome Robinson, a professor of psychology, at DePaul, worked with collaborators Gary Harper and Michael Schoeny to compare differences between health behaviors of students who attended schools with and without clinics. Their findings indicated that clinics can have an important impact on students' physical and mental health. For example:

• Freshmen in schools with and without clinics smoked cigarettes and marijuana at the same rate. At schools with clinics, use of these substances decreased by the time the students were juniors, but increased among juniors at schools lacking clinics.
  
  
• Students in clinic schools were more likely than their counterparts at non-clinics schools to use birth control pills to prevent pregnancy. Students with sexually transmitted diseases were more likely to be diagnosed and treated if they attended clinic schools than non-clinic schools.

Harriet Meyer, executive director of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, said, "This confirms what we have always known: school health centers help students with some of the most challenging problems they face when we find a model that works, we must work to ensure its continued existence."

Robinson added, "School-based health centers attract and provide services to adolescents who are at risk for such problems as pregnancy, HIV infection and substance abuse. Our study specifically looked at inner-city kids, but we believe clinics can have a positive impact on all teens who confront similar problems."

The study was founded by the National Institute for Mental Health.

Contact: Denise Mattson, DePaul University, 312-362-6225, or Jeff Hackett, Ounce of Prevention, 312-922-3863