Economic evaluation of a school-based unintended pregnancy intervention for underserved preadolescents

Background: Unintended pregnancy among preadolescents often imposes burdens of poor health outcomes, induce socio-economic costs, and increase health/medical costs. Purpose: The present study is to examine the extent to which intervention programs are effective, and to assess the impacts of unintended pregnancy intervention for underserved preadolescents. Significance: This study underscores the need to target underserved preadolescents and to distinguish cultural differences in sexual activities. It is crucial to evaluate a school-based program by taking into account different socio-cultural characteristics in order to allocate community human resources effectively. Methodology: A school-based “Sex Can Wait Curriculum” was implemented in the 6th and 7th grades preadolescents during the school year of 2008-2009 in suburban New York. The evaluation employs a quasi-experimental treatment-control group design with random assignment of schools to treatment and control groups. A common instrument was administered to students at baseline, at 6- and 12-month follow ups. Findings/Results: The findings show that this school-based health intervention prevents 4.73 preadolescent students from becoming pregnant by investing $1,000 per year. In addition, the program contributes $13.46 per preadolescent of net gain relative to real average cost input value. Another interesting finding shows that a school-based health intervention for pregnancy prevention in preadolescents requires the integration of an improvement of communication with parents and attitude and self efficacy for underserved preadolescents. Conclusions/Recommendations: The school-based health intervention for underserved preadolescents is practical. A long-term economic impact evaluation might be necessary to observe if the changes are stable over time and from resource allocation perspectives.