Does visiting the school health room teach appropriate or inappropriate use of health services

This study examines the school health room visiting behavior, over two school years, of a random sample (N = 671) of urban children, grades K-5. Excluding eight students who visited regularly for medication (and who alone accounted for 25 per cent of all visits), 94 per cent of the students made at least one visit. Girls visited more frequently than boys (5.1 visits/year vs 4.1 visits/year). Girls were more likely to be in the frequent visitor group (P = 0.01); to have presented five or more different complaints (P = 0.02); and to have visited for stomachache (P less than or equal to 0.001). These sex differences were observed as early as first grade. Almost 58 per cent of the variance in visiting in the second year was predicted by frequency of visiting in the first. These data raise questions about the influence of the school in either reinforcing or modifying the health services utilization behavior of individuals.