Purpose. To evaluate the effect of behavioral, empowerment-focused interventions on the incidence of pregnancy-related
school dropout among girls in Nairobi’s informal settlements. Method. Retrospective data on pregnancy-related school
dropout from two cohorts were analyzed using a matched-pairs quasi-experimental design. The primary outcome was the
change in the number of school dropouts due to pregnancy from 1 year before to 1 year after the interventions. Results.
Annual incidence of school dropout due to pregnancy decreased by 46% in the intervention schools (from 3.9% at baseline
to 2.1% at follow-up), whereas the comparison schools remained essentially unchanged (p < .029). Sensitivity analysis shows
that the findings are robust to small levels of unobserved bias. Conclusions. Results suggest that these behavioral interventions
significantly reduced the number of school dropouts due to pregnancy. As there are limited promising studies on behavioral
interventions that decrease adolescent pregnancy in low-income settings, this intervention may be an important addition to
this toolkit.