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Contraceptive and Reproductive Health Services for Teens

From 2010 to 2015, CDC, the federal Office of Adolescent Health (OAH), and the Office of Population Affairs collaborated to demonstrate the effectiveness of innovative, multicomponent, communitywide initiatives in reducing rates of teen pregnancy and births in communities with the highest rates, with a focus on reaching African American and Latino or Hispanic young people aged 15 to 19 years.

A key component of the initiatives was ensuring clinical partners are providing youth-friendly, culturally- competent reproductive health care services that are easily accessible to all young people in the community, and establishing linkages between teen pregnancy prevention program partners and clinics that serve at-risk youth from the target community. CDC partnered with the national organization CAI to provide training and technical assistance to grantees to improve community adolescent reproductive health services.

CDC, CAI, along with OAH and other grantees, collaboratively developed valuable reproductive health care tools and resources that may be useful for other teen pregnancy prevention initiatives:

Evidence-based Clinical Practices [PDF - 138KB]

Using the rapid synthesis and translation process[1] to facilitate the translation of professional recommendations and scientific evidence, CDC and CAI developed this checklist to assist communitywide initiative health partners in providing accessible and improved reproductive services for adolescents.

Publications

Romero LM, Middleton D, Mueller T, Avellino L, Hallum-Montes R

J Adolesc Health. 2015 Nov;57(5):488-95. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.07.013. Epub 2015 Sep 15.

 

Hallum-Montes R, Middleton D, Schlanger K, Romero L

J Adolesc Health. 2016 Mar;58(3):276-83. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.11.002

 

Assessment Tools

  • Clinical Partner Needs Assessment Tool [PDF - 707KB]—This tool helps organizations identify current services, as well as areas of potential growth, related to the provision of health care services to support adolescent reproductive health. Information gathered through this assessment can be used to track health center progress in improving youth access to contraceptive and reproductive health services.

Reporting Tools

  • Performance Measure Reporting Tool [PDF - 616KB] —This tool can help organizations involved in community-wide teen pregnancy prevention initiatives to evaluate their progress in the areas of evidence-based programs, contraceptive and reproductive health services, community mobilization, stakeholder education, and working with diverse communities.

Teleconferences from CDC Vital Signs

  • Preventing Teen Pregnancy: A Key Role for Health Care Providers
    About 43% of teens ages 15–19 have had sex. While more than 4 in 5 used birth control the last time they had sex, less than 5% of teens used the most effective types. This teleconference featured a Vital Signs discussion on teen pregnancy prevention.
  • Preventing Teen Pregnancy in Younger Teens
    Teen births in the US have declined over the last 20 years, however more than 86,000 teens ages 15 to 17 gave birth in 2012. More can be done to prevent younger teens from becoming pregnant, particularly in health care. This teleconference featured a Vital Signs summary and discussion on preventing teen pregnancy in younger teens.
  • Preventing Repeat Teen Births
    Nearly 1 in 5 births to teen mothers, ages 15 to 19, is a repeat birth. Teen pregnancy and childbearing can carry high health, emotional, social, and financial costs for both teen parents and their children. This teleconference featured a Vital Signs summary and discussion on Preventing Repeat Teen Births.
  • Teen Pregnancy
    More than 400,000 teenagers aged 15 to 19 years give birth each year in the United States. This teleconference featured a Vital Signs summary and discussion on how to effectively engage partners in addressing this public health problem.

[1] Thigpen S, Puddy RW, Singer HH, et al. Moving knowledge into action: Developing the rapid synthesis and translation process within the interactive systems framework. Am J Community Psychol 2012:1e10.

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