Sustained Availability of Dedicated High School Health Courses and Adolescent Substance Use

Is sustained availability of a dedicated high school health course associated with lower adolescent substance use prevalence?In this statewide cohort study of 1 942 640 student survey responses from 915 California public high schools, sustained availability of a dedicated health course was associated with lower prevalence of past 30-day alcohol use, binge drinking, marijuana use, and vaping. Estimates remained statistically significant after adjustment for false discovery rate.These findings suggest that sustained availability of a dedicated high school health course may be a scalable, policy-relevant strategy associated with lower adolescent substance use prevalence.

Corresponding Author: Brennan Davis, PhD, California Polytechnic State University, 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 (bdavis39@calpoly.edu).

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