Positive Impact of a Structural Intervention on Knowledge of and Use of School-Based Condom Availability Programs by Urban High School Students

Project Connect worked with schools to fully implement district-mandated condom availability programs (CAPs) in six intervention high schools. Activities included increasing awareness and education of school nurses and administrators about the policy and its rationale, recruitment of additional school staff to implement the program, and provision of tools to streamline program implementation. Among students in intervention and their matched comparison schools, knowledge about CAPs increased significantly from baseline to Time 3 (p<.001 for both groups) but the increase was larger for interventions students. Use of the CAP increased among sexually experienced intervention students, but not among sexually experienced comparison students.