An Evaluation of Factors Affecting Antimalarial Drug Quality

Last registered on February 04, 2016

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
An Evaluation of Factors Affecting Antimalarial Drug Quality
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001033
Initial registration date
February 04, 2016

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
February 04, 2016, 5:45 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
The Ohio State University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2013-05-17
End date
2013-12-01
Secondary IDs
Abstract
In partnership with researchers at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology, I conduct an audit study to test whether improved customer information about healthcare purchases lowers prices or changes quality. I send pairs of mystery shoppers to private sector drug outlets in Uganda to purchase antimalarial drugs according to randomized scripts. The scripts experimentally vary information about the patient's diagnosis (malaria) and/or about appropriate treatment (artemether-lumefantrine). All purchases are tested using spectrometer to determine whether they are substandard. That data are linked with additional survey data of vendors and real customers.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Fitzpatrick, Anne. 2016. "An Evaluation of Factors Affecting Antimalarial Drug Quality." AEA RCT Registry. February 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1033-1.0
Former Citation
Fitzpatrick, Anne. 2016. "An Evaluation of Factors Affecting Antimalarial Drug Quality." AEA RCT Registry. February 04. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1033/history/6746
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Mystery shoppers purchase antimalarial drugs according to randomly assigned scripts. Scripts vary in knowledge of the patient's diagnosis (malaria) and/or appropriate treatment (artemether-lumefantrine, or AL). Data are then collected on the price and quality of the resulting transaction.
Intervention Start Date
2013-05-17
Intervention End Date
2013-12-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Type of drug purchased; price; quality
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Mystery shoppers purchase antimalarial drugs according to randomly assigned scripts. Scripts vary in knowledge of the patient's diagnosis (malaria) and/or appropriate treatment (artemether-lumefantrine, or AL). Data are then collected on the price and quality of the resulting transaction.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization was stratified by parish and implemented using Stata software.
Randomization Unit
Unit of randomization was a drug outlet.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
538 outlets
Sample size: planned number of observations
933 purchases from these outlets
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Sample was divided approximately evenly among the 4 treatment groups.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Used optimal design software.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Mbarara University of Science and Technology
IRB Approval Date
2013-04-16
IRB Approval Number
No. 18/09-12
IRB Name
University of Michigan
IRB Approval Date
2013-03-05
IRB Approval Number
HUM00067957

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials