Papers by Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli
Table S1. Standards from Government of India Implementation Guide for Assessing Adolescent Friend... more Table S1. Standards from Government of India Implementation Guide for Assessing Adolescent Friendly Health Services1. Table S2. Characteristics of evaluations (N=18). Table S3. Characteristics of research studies (N=12). Table S4. Main findings of evaluations (N=18). Table S5. Main findings of research studies (N=12). Appendix 1. Medline search strategy. Appendix 2. EMBASE search strategy. Appendix 3. PRISMA Diagram. Appendix 4. Peer-reviewed publications that were reviewed in full-text and excluded. (DOCX 121Â kb)
Teenage Pregnancy and Young Parenthood

Adolescence is a period when important changes occur in an individual's life. It is a period ... more Adolescence is a period when important changes occur in an individual's life. It is a period of both risk to health and well-being, and of opportunity to set the stage for healthy adulthood. Most adolescents are healthy, but a small (and in some places not so small) proportion of them face health (including both physical and psychological) problems as well as social problems. Many individuals and institutions have important contributions to make in ensuring the health of adolescents. Medical professionals have crucial contributions to make--both as service providers and as community-change agents. Studies from many places show that adolescents value medical professionals as credible sources of help, and reach out to them for health information and services, albeit in small numbers. However, studies from many parts of the world suggest that medical professionals are unable and/or unwilling to respond to the needs of adolescents effectively and with sensitivity. There is growing r...
Authors: Anna Newton-Levinson , MPH * † [email protected] Jami Leichliter, PhD † [email protected] Ven... more Authors: Anna Newton-Levinson , MPH * † [email protected] Jami Leichliter, PhD † [email protected] Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli, MBBS, MSc ‡ [email protected] *Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University †Division of STD Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA ‡Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4... more © The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ publi cdoma in/ zero/1. 0/) ap...

International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health
The very young adolescent population (ages 10–14) is currently under-served by health care system... more The very young adolescent population (ages 10–14) is currently under-served by health care systems, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Although there is a substantial and growing effort to reach adolescents with the health services and commodities they need, such efforts often overlook the period of early adolescence given this population’s lower vulnerability to risk-taking behaviors. However, early adolescence is a period of significant change, with the onset of puberty introducing physiological, emotional, and social changes in girls’ and boys’ lives. This period also represents a time of intensifying gendered norms, and the transition of youth from childhood focused health care (e.g. deworming programs, nutrition interventions) to additional mid- and older adolescent related care [e.g. human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, and contraceptive provision). Strengthening young adolescents’ engagement with health care workers around preventative and promotive health beha...

Reproductive Health
Background: Adolescents in the Latin American and Caribbean region continue to experience poor re... more Background: Adolescents in the Latin American and Caribbean region continue to experience poor reproductive health outcomes, including high rates of first birth before the age of 20 years. Aggregate national level data fails to identify groups where progress is particularly poor. This paper explores how trends in adolescent births have changed over time in five countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Peru) using data disaggregated by adolescent age group, wealth and urban / rural residence. Methods: The study draws on Demographic and Health Survey data from five countries where three surveys are available since 1990, with the most recent after 2006. It examines trends in adolescent births by wealth status and urban/rural residence. Results: There has been little progress in reducing adolescent first births over the last two decades in these countries. Adolescent first births continue to be more common among the poorest and rural residents, and births among the youngest age-group (< 16 years) are particularly concentrated among these populations. Conclusion: Adolescent first births continue to be a major issue in these five countries, including amongst the youngest group (< 16 years), although the contexts in which it is occurring are changing over time. Efforts are needed to expand sexual education and services for adolescents and young people, as well as introduce and enforce legislation to provide effective protection from abuse or exploitation. Greater disaggregation of adolescent fertility data is needed if we are to measure progress towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals to "leave no-one behind".

BMJ Global Health
IntroductionAdolescent pregnancy is associated with significant risks and disadvantages for young... more IntroductionAdolescent pregnancy is associated with significant risks and disadvantages for young women and girls and their children. A clear understanding of population subgroups with particularly high prevalence of first births in adolescence is vital if appropriate national responses are to be developed. This paper aims to provide detailed data on socioeconomic and geographic inequities in first births to adolescents in Nepal, including wealth quintile, education, rural/urban residence and geographic region. A key element is the use of geospatial modelling to develop estimates for the prevalence of adolescent births at the district level.MethodsThe study uses data from the 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey. Initial cross-tabulations present disaggregated data by socioeconomic status and basic geographic region. Estimates of prevalence of adolescent first births at the district level are creating by regression modelling using the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation pack...
Journal of Adolescent Health

BMJ Global Health
IntroductionA strong focus on sexual and reproductive health of female adolescents is a key to ac... more IntroductionA strong focus on sexual and reproductive health of female adolescents is a key to achieving sustainable development goals, due to the large size of the current cohort in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and adolescents’ biological and social vulnerability. Several indicators of fertility among adolescents are in wide use, but the contribution of adolescent births to all births is poorly understood. We propose and calculate a package of three indicators capturing the contribution of adolescent births to all births, stratified by parity (first and second/higher).MethodsWe used Demographic and Health Survey data for 30 LMICs and vital registration for two high-income countries (to calculate levels and trends across a range of countries) for three time periods: 1990–1999, 2000–2009 and 2010–2015. The three indicators were calculated overall and by age thresholds (<16, <18 and <20 years) and exact ages, for each country and time point. Patterns of ch...

Global health, science and practice, Mar 21, 2018
Since the 1930s, Mexico has made substantial progress in providing adolescents with sexuality edu... more Since the 1930s, Mexico has made substantial progress in providing adolescents with sexuality education through an evolving national school-based program. As part of a broader effort to document strategies to build support for and deal with resistance to sexuality education, this analysis uses a historical lens to answer 2 key questions: (1) How has the nature of sexuality education in Mexico evolved from the 1930s to the 2010s? (2) How have the drivers, responses, support, and resistance to sexuality education impacted Mexico's experience implementing and sustaining school-based sexuality education? The analysis was informed by a review of peer-reviewed and gray literature as well as the personal experience and documents of one of the authors, who has played a central role in Mexico's sexuality education effort for 50 years. The findings were organized according to 4 time periods-the 1930s, the 1970s, the 1990s, and the first 2 decades of the 21st century-that emerged durin...

Global health, science and practice, Mar 13, 2018
Despite international recommendations and supportive evidence, there are few examples of scaled-u... more Despite international recommendations and supportive evidence, there are few examples of scaled-up and sustained programs to provide adolescents with sexuality education. Moreover, despite acknowledgment that building community support and responding to resistance are key challenges, there is a lack of detailed discussion on specific programmatic strategies to address these issues. This article reviews the work of 2 organizations-Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan-that are successfully implementing large-scale sexuality education programs in Pakistan, collectively reaching more than 500,000 students. This review aims to answer the following questions: (1) How did Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan work to understand Pakistani society and culture and shape their programs to build community support? (2) How did Aahung and Rutgers Pakistan overcome resistance to their efforts? We reviewed program documents and publications, synthesized key themes, identified questions of interest, and engaged key in...
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Papers by Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli