Rural School‐Based Clinics: Are Adolescents Willing to Use Them and What Services Do They Want?

Abstract

Using a theoretical model of access, factors associated with rural adolescents' willingness to use primary care services through a school‐based health center (SBHC) were examined. Standardized measures of health status and use were administered to 633 adolescents in grades 7–12 who resided in one rural western Maryland county. Although only 6.5% (n = 41) of the sample indicated a willingness to change their regular source of care to an SBHC, greater numbers of adolescents reported a willingness to use SBHC services, with 18%, 38%, 25%, and 16%, indicating interest in routine, acute medical, miscellaneous, and reproductive health care services, respectively. Logistic regression analysis found those adolescents who reported eligibility for free‐reduced lunch and no regular source of care for illness were 3.3 and 5.4 times more likely, respectively, to use an SBHC as a primary care site than those unwilling to change their source of care. Data suggest that initially many rural adolescents appear unwilling to change their primary care site to an SBHC, but do express a willingness to use offered services.