Effectiveness of a teen pregnancy clinic in a managed care setting.

We retrospectively examined the effectiveness of a teen pregnancy clinic at a large multispecialty group between 1991 and 1994 using measurements of statistical differences in intervention and outcome variables. The 72 teens in the intervention group attended significantly more prenatal visits, more postpartum visits and gained more weight than the 33 controls. Other outcome variables such as fetal birth weight, Apgar scores, and neonatal intensive care unit admission showed trends toward improvement, but were not significantly different. We conclude that a teen pregnancy clinic in a managed care setting can be a cost-effective intervention in improving mental and neonatal outcome.