Economic outcome evaluation for preadolescent pregnancy prevention

General 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 and economic outcomes taking into account different socio-cultural characteristics and behaviors in order to allocate resources effectively.

Methods: The project employed a quasi-experimental treatment-control group evaluation design with random assignment of schools to treatment and control groups in New York. About 700 students are in the intervention and 500 students were in the control group in 6th and 7th grades. A common instrument was administered to students at baseline and at 6 month, 12 month and 24 month follow ups. Statistical analysis: A descriptive analysis will be conducted to reveal the distributional properties. Each variable will be inputted into a two stages multivariate regression model. The analysis of this research is to determine what factors affect the health outcomes and pregnancy prevention.

Findings/Results: The findings show that this school-based health intervention prevents 5about preadolescent students from becoming pregnant by investing $1,000 per year. In addition, the program contributes $20 per preadolescent of net gain relative to real average cost input value. Moreover, these results confirmed the effectiveness of the school-based health-education intervention even among preadolescents who are already sexually active.

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.