- "Sweeney et al. [10] make the case for investments to improve outcomes in adolescent sexual and reproductive health, the health of adolescent mothers and their newborn children, and adolescent relevant communicable and noncommunicable diseases. They examine investments in intervention-specific costs, program costs, and health systems costs for 40 low- and middle-income countries. For the 66 adolescent health interventions modeled through 2030, they estimate 7.0 million deaths and 1.5 million serious disabilities averted at the average cost of $4.5 per capita each year. They also estimate BCRs of 12.6 for low-income, 9.9 for lower middle-income, and 6.4 for upper middle-income countries.
- Rassmusen et al. model the effects of a set of identified interventions on child marriage (life skills, community mobilization, and cash transfers) and education (availability and proximity of schools, teacher quality, and cash incentives) for 31 low- and middle-income countries [11]. They find that the interventions result in an 8% reduction in marriage rates for 15-17 year olds by 2050, an increase of 19.3% in school attendance and completion, and 22.7% increase in productivity by 2030. The average BCR for these interventions is 7.4.
- Wils et al. [12] find that in 44 low- and middle-income countries, school dropout among preadolescents is now very rare. Rather, dropout is mainly an adolescent effect—especially between ages 14-19 years and particularly for girls. Their analysis shows that at the cost of $10.5 per capita per annum, nine identified interventions can be sustained through 2030, increasing secondary completion rates by 25% and doubling the quality of secondary schooling as measured by the learning index.
- On a continuum to this analysis, Sheehan and Shi [13] estimate the economic returns to both the quantity and quality of education for adolescents in the context of the actual employment patterns in 72 low- and middle-income countries. They find that with sustained investment through 2030, the economic benefits of better education for adolescent cohorts lead to an increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 40% overall and 50% in low-income countries.
- Noting that in 75 low- and middle-income countries, death rates by road accidents are disproportionately high and the leading cause of death for adolescents, Symons et al. [14] provide an assessment of interventions to reduce these deaths and injuries for adolescents. Modeling of their preferred interventions results in 1 million deaths and 3 million serious injuries averted, at a cost of $1.2 per capita and a BCR of 7.6
A special issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health in July 2019 contains several cost-benefit estimates of investing in health, education, productivity and safety in low & middle income countries. "The papers in this supplement present an important milestone in addressing this challenge, helping the international development field to move forward by focusing on the question of investing at scale for a few key components of the adolescent health agenda that are especially relevant for low- and middle-income contexts. All the empirical papers assess the effectiveness of implementing a specific set of interventions nationally at scale for their prioritized outcome of interest—health, education, productivity, safety—for a sustained period through 2030. The analyses confirm that the resulting benefits in all cases are substantial, both for the adolescents and for the economic and social progress of their nations. Four of the five empirical papers also model the costs of these interventions, and three papers further extend their analysis to calculate benefit-to-cost ratios (BCRs) of such investments. The BCRs range from 5.8 to 12.6, indicating a compelling case for national and global decision-makers to prioritize investing in adolescents." ....
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