School health programs: Education, health, and welfare dependency of young adults

Arbeitspapier

This paper provides new evidence that preventive health care services delivered at schools and provided at a relatively low cost have positive and lasting impacts. We use variation from a 1999-reform in Norway that induced substantial differences in the avail-ability of health professionals across municipalities and cohorts. In municipalities with one fewer school nurse per 1,000 school-age children before the reform there was an increase in the availability of nurses of 35% from the pre- to the post-reform period, attributed to the policy change. The reform reduced teenage pregnancies and increased college attendance for girls. It also reduced the take-up of welfare benefits by ages 26 and 30 and increased the planned use of primary and specialist health care services at ages 25-35, without impacts on emergency room admissions. The reform also improved the health of newborns of affected new mothers and reduced the likelihood of miscarriages.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IFS Working Paper ; No. W21/20

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions ; Health: General ; Health Behavior ; Education: Government Policy ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: General ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
• Subject: School Health Services ; Teenage Pregnancy ; Welfare Dependency ; Utilization of Health Services ; Health Status

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Abrahamsen, Signe A. ; Ginja, Rita ; Riise Kolstad, Julie
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)
• (where): London
• (when): 2021

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.1920/wp.ifs.2021.2021
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/242919
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET