Addressing HIV/Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Pregnancy Prevention Through Schools: An Approach for Strengthening Education, Health Services, and School Environments That Promote Adolescent Sexual Health and Well-Being.

Adolescents' health behaviors and experiences contribute to many outcomes, including risks for HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancy. Public health interventions and approaches addressing risk behaviors or experiences in adolescence have the potential for wide-reaching impacts on sexual health and other related outcomes across the lifespan, and schools are a critical venue for such interventions. This paper describes a school-based program model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Adolescent and School Health for preventing HIV/sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancy, and related health risk behaviors and experiences among middle and high school students.