A study on the correlation between program contact hours and the successful matriculation into college.

Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) play an important role in the recruitment and training of students to serve as practicing health care professionals in rural, primary care, and medically underserved communities. To analyze the relationship between the accumulated contact hours of past students in AHEC programs and their known matriculation into college. 5,189 students, whom participated in Indiana AHEC Network programs, were grouped into eight categories based on accumulated contact hours and matched against two college matriculation databases. The relationship between the number of accumulated contact hours and known college matriculation was statistically significant. The analysis of the data suggests two significant break points in which the number of accumulated contact hours appears to be correlated with increased known college matriculation. The findings indicate accumulated contact hours are significantly correlated with known college matriculation. Furthermore, two significant break points in contact hours at the 5 and 20 contact hours demonstrated increased correlations between program contact hours and known college matriculation. The results of this analysis between participation in area health education center programming and matriculation into higher education may be transferable to other areas of health education.