Sex education programs for schools still in question: a commentary on meta-analysis.

m i “ The meta-analysis reported in the three Guide to Community Preventive Services papers published in this issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine targets two basic prevention strategies— omprehensive risk reduction (CRR) and abstinence ducation—which have the common purpose of lowering dolescent sexual risk behavior. Meta-analyses were conucted for each strategy on key behavioral and biological utcomes. This study did a commendable job of identifyng the available studies of sexual risk-reduction interentions and evaluating them according to criteria for tudy quality. The Community Preventive Services Task orce (Task Force) also developed a rigorous category ystem to create appropriate dependent and independent ariables for the analysis, and employed a sophisticated nalytic strategy. They are to be commended for underaking the study. Following are comments on the impact f heterogeneity on the study’s conclusions, as well as omments on the authors’ interpretation of study fındngs with regard to the public health impact of CRR and bstinence education.