An evaluation of an adolescent family planning program.

The family planning program of an adolescent care clinic (ACC) was evaluated to determine its effect on the teenage birth rate. The ACC was attempting to provide more accessible family planning services to a low-income, minority teenage population. The first evaluation compared the teenage birth rate for the target area served by the ACC with a matched area for 4 years before the ACC began offering services ("pre-intervention") and four years after ("post-intervention"). The two groups did not differ for the pre-intervention period, but the ACC target area had a lower birth rate for the post-intervention period (p = 0.015). The second evaluation was designed to compare the teenage birth rate within the target area for adolescents using the ACC and those not using the service for one year. Adjusting for age and race, the rate for the ACC was 58.0 births per 1,000 and for the non-ACC group, 112.4 births per 1,000 (p less than 0.001). The results suggest the importance of providing accessible family planning services for adolescents.