Publications by authors named "Dara Lee Luca"

This paper presents findings from an experimental evaluation of the Teen Options to Prevent Pregnancy (TOPP) program, an 18-month intervention that consists of a unique combination of personalized contraceptive counseling, facilitated access to contraceptive services, and referrals to social services. We find that TOPP led to large and statistically significant increases in the use of long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), accompanied by substantial reductions in repeat and unintended pregnancy among adolescent mothers. We provide an exploratory analysis of the channels through which TOPP achieved its impacts on contraceptive behavior and pregnancy outcomes.

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Objectives: Unintended (mistimed or unwanted) pregnancies occur frequently in the United States and have negative effects. When designing prevention programs and intervention strategies for the provision of comprehensive birth control methods, it is necessary to identify (1) populations at high risk of unintended pregnancy, and (2) geographic areas with a concentration of need.

Methods: To estimate the proportion and incidence of unintended births and pregnancies for regions in Missouri, two machine-learning prediction models were developed using data from the National Survey of Family Growth and the Missouri Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System.

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To estimate the economic burden of untreated perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) among 2017 births in the United States. We developed a mathematical model based on a cost-of-illness approach to estimate the impacts of exposure to untreated PMADs on mothers and children. Our model estimated the costs incurred by mothers and their babies born in 2017, projected from conception through the first 5 years of the birth cohort's lives.

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Background: In Ontario, Canada, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) was approved for infants in 2001 and became part of the publicly funded routine immunization schedule in 2005. We assessed the population-level impact of PCV on pneumonia hospitalizations and related costs.

Methods: We used the difference-in-differences approach to evaluate the impact of pneumococcal vaccination on pneumonia hospitalizations and related costs, using nonpneumonia hospitalization as the control condition.

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