Reducing adolescent pregnancy through a school- and community-based intervention: Denmark, South Carolina, revisited

Abstract

The publication of a 1987 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association evaluating a pregnancy prevention program in Denmark, S.C., showed declines in estimated pregnancy rates among adolescents in the intervention area. A reanalysis of the data that selected better matched comparison areas and extended the time period covered confirms that the adolescent pregnancy rate in the intervention area significantly deceased from an annual average of 77 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 14-17 during the preprogram period (1981-1982) to 37 per 1,000 following the intervention (1984-1986). However, the reanalysis also shows that the pregnancy rate returned to a higher level (66 per 1,000) in 1987-1988 after the discontinuation of important program components and related nonprogram services. These services included the efforts of a school nurse, who provided contraceptive services to students and whose intervention was not previously reported.