Adolescent Births Increase with Restrictive Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy: Evidence from Ecuador’s ENSANUT 2018 dataset

Sierra, Melissa

Full Metadata

Overview

Year:: 2022
Contributor:: Sierra, Melissa (creator); Galárraga, Omar (Advisor); Bilinski, Alyssa (Reader); Brown University. School of Public Health (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Ecuador; Teenage girls; Global Health; health policy
Extent:: III, 15 p.

Files

Description

Abstract:: Latin America has the second-highest teen birth rate (births at age 15-19 per 1000 women) globally, with Ecuador reporting the highest rate in this region at 111 births per 1,000 teenage girls in 2018. Indigenous women in Ecuador experience particularly high teen birth rates and often rely on the public health clinics offered by the Health Ministry for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. We examined the impact on indigenous women of an abrupt change in SRH policy in Ecuador, which restricted adolescent access to SRH services in late 2014. Using the 2018 nationally representative Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT 2018), we generated a pseudo-panel dataset covering 2011 to 2018. Using difference-in-differences (DID), we quantified the impact of the policy change on adolescent births (13-19). We estimate a 2016 post-policy increase of 5.3 births per 1000 indigenous women. No post-policy effects were found for 2017 or 2018. This finding supports prior literature, which found a similar post-policy increase in teen birth rates among indigenous populations using complete administrative records (i.e., the full live births registry). This study provides additional evidence to suggest that policies limiting adolescent access to SRH services in Ecuador increase the rate of adolescent births among indigenous women.
Notes:: Thesis (M. P. H.)--Brown University, 2022

Content

Citation

Sierra, Melissa, "Adolescent Births Increase with Restrictive Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy: Evidence from Ecuador’s ENSANUT 2018 dataset" (2022). Public Health Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:p5rhgcvp/

Relations

Collection:

Public Health Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Public Health department.
...