Impact of social service and public health spending on teenage birth rates across the USA: an ecological study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To examine whether greater state-level spending on social and public health services such as income, education and public safety is associated with lower rates of teenage births in USA.

Design

Ecological study.

Setting

USA.

Participants

50 states.

Primary outcome measure

Our primary outcome measure was teenage birth rates. For analyses, we constructed marginal models using repeated measures to test the effect of social spending on teenage birth rates, accounting for several potential confounders.

Results

The unadjusted and adjusted models across all years demonstrated significant effects of spending and suggested that higher spending rates were associated with lower rates of teenage birth, with effects slightly diminishing with each incr

SUBMITTER: Sipsma HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5541339 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature