The effectiveness of family planning programs evaluated with true experimental designs

Objectives. This paper describes the magnitude of effects for family planning programs evaluated with true experimental designs. Methods. Studies that used true experimental designs to evaluate family planning programs were identified and their results subjected to meta-analysis. Results. For the 14 studies with the information needed to calculate effect size, the Pearson r between program and effect variables ranged from -.08 to .19 and averaged .08. Conclusions. The programs evaluated in the studies considered have had, on average, smaller effects than many would assume and desire.