DOES CONDOM AVAILABILITY MAKE A DIFFERENCE - AN EVALUATION OF PHILADELPHIAS HEALTH-RESOURCE-CENTERS

In 1992, nine Philadelphia high schools opened drop-in centers where s tudents could receive reproductive health information, condoms and gen eral health referrals. Analyses of survey data collected in 1991 and 1 993 suggest that the presence of the condom availability program did n ot increase the level of sexual activity among students in these schoo ls and may have contributed to safer sex practices. The proportion of students who had used a condom at last intercourse increased from 52% to 58%; although the change was not statistically significant, it exce eded the increase in a group of comparison schools. Changes in the pro portions of students who had ever had intercourse, who had had sex in the previous four weeks, who had used a condom at last intercourse and who had recently had unprotected sex were greatest in schools with hi gher levels of program usage; however, only the decline in recent unpr otected intercourse among students in high-use schools (from 14% to 6% ) approached statistical significance.