title: Local Access to Family Planning Services and Female High School Dropout Rates.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether geographic access to family planning services is associated with a reduced female high school dropout rate.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study. We merged the location of Planned Parenthood and Title X clinics with microdata from the 2012-2013 American Community Surveys. The association between female high school dropout rates and local clinic access was assessed using nearest-neighbor matching estimation. Models included various covariates to account for sociodemographic differences across communities and male high school dropout rates to account for unmeasured community characteristics affecting educational outcomes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our sample included 284,910 16- to 22-year-old females. The presence of a Planned Parenthood clinic was associated with a decrease (4.08% compared with 4.83%; relative risk ratio 0.84, P<.001) in female high school dropout rates. This association was consistent across several model specifications. The presence of a Title X clinic was associated with a decrease (4.79% compared with 5.07%; relative risk ratio 0.94, P=.03) in female high school dropout rates, an association that did not remain significant across model specifications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Local access to Planned Parenthood is associated with lower high school dropout rates in young women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Tufts Medical Center, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hicks-Courant
authors.forename: Aaron L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013332:Student Dropouts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult