Intrahousehold differences in perceived health risks of using solid fuels for cooking

Last registered on December 20, 2024

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Intrahousehold differences in perceived health risks of using solid fuels for cooking

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0013604

Initial registration date

May 13, 2024

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

May 13, 2024, 12:45 PM EDT

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

Last updated

December 20, 2024, 11:55 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

India

Region

Odisha

Primary Investigator

Name

Theradapuzha Varghese Ninan

Affiliation

University of Washington

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Ananya Diwakant

PI Affiliation

University of Washington

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2024-05-22

End date

2025-03-31

Keywords

Environment & Energy, Gender, Health

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

J16; Q53; Q56

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Household air pollution (HAP) caused an estimated 3.2 million deaths in 2020. Roughly 30% of the world’s population still relies on biomass-fueled stoves or open fires for cooking, which significantly contributes to HAP. One potential reason for the continued use of solid fuels could be limited awareness about health risks. Notably, since women’s exposure to HAP is much higher than men’s as they are often the primary cooks, it is possible that such lack of awareness is more pronounced for men. Our study proposes to first measure and highlight the differences in the subjective beliefs held by the household head and the primary cook about the health risks of cooking with solid fuels. We will then conduct a cluster RCT where either the household head or the primary cook will be given information in a one on one session about the actual health risks of using solid fuels. This includes information about long term diseases as well as prevalence of symptoms associated with the use of solid fuels from a baseline survey. The content of the information will be varied between treatments in order to test whether household heads prioritize the health of children over primary cooks. Through this study we aim to understand how such an information intervention affects household members' beliefs, fuel usage, and health outcomes.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Diwakant, Ananya and Theradapuzha Varghese Ninan. 2024. "Intrahousehold differences in perceived health risks of using solid fuels for cooking." AEA RCT Registry. December 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13604-3.0

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

A Pure control group in addition to 3 Treatment groups where information about the health risks associated with the use of solid fuels would be shared
T1: Information shared with household head about the primary cook
T2: Information shared with household head about children and primary cook
T3: Information shared with primary cook about children and primary cook

Intervention (Hidden)

3 Treatment groups where information about the health risks associated with the use of solid fuels would be shared

T1: In this group, we will share information through a one-on-one session privately with the household head about the long-term disease burdens of using solid fuels for the primary cook using the Global Burden of Disease database. We will also share descriptive statistics from our baseline about the prevalence and frequency of various symptoms like cough, sore eyes etc. for the primary cooks in our study sample. For example, a part of our script would say “When we last visited you, you told us that you think out of 100 primary cooks in households similar to yours primarily using solid fuels, ‘x’ would have had the symptom ‘y’ in the last 30 days. Our data shows that ‘z’ had these symptoms in the solid fuel group whereas ‘p’ had these symptoms in the clean fuel group.”
T2: Similar to T1, except that we will share information about the long-term disease burdens of using solid fuels for small children (0-5 years) in addition to the info shared in T1. We will also share statistics about the prevalence and frequency of various symptoms in children in our study sample from the baseline data.
T3: Similar to T2, except the information will be given to the primary cook.
C: No information will be shared until the final endline survey.

Intervention Start Date

2024-07-15

Intervention End Date

2024-08-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

1. Beliefs of Health Risks
2. Willingness to pay for Liquified Petroleum Gas
3. Amount of Solid Fuel used since intervention
4. Amount of LPG used since intervention

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

1. Time use of women
2. Self Health outcomes of members in the household

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Cluster randomised control trial where villages will be assigned to 3 treatment groups and 1 pure control group. Information about the health risks of using solid fuels for various household members will be shared.

Experimental Design Details

Enroll 2000 households in 100 villages and first conduct a baseline survey (scheduled to start in May, 2024) to elicit household heads’ and primary cooks’ beliefs about primary cooks and children experiencing symptoms associated with using solid fuels, their health status and collect detailed information about the households’ fuel use.

We will then randomly assign villages, stratified by the median splits of village baseline beliefs of health risks, amount of solid fuel used and a village services index into one of the following four groups of the same size.
T1: In this group, we will share information through a one-on-one session privately with the household head about the long-term disease burdens of using solid fuels for the primary cook. We will also share descriptive statistics from our baseline about the prevalence and frequency of various symptoms for the primary cooks in our study sample. For example, a part of our script would say “When we last visited you, you told us that you think out of 100 primary cooks in households similar to yours primarily using solid fuels, ‘x’ would have had the symptom ‘y’ in the last 30 days. Our data shows that ‘z’ had these symptoms in the solid fuel group whereas ‘p’ had these symptoms in the clean fuel group.”
T2: Similar to T1, except that we will share information about the long-term disease burdens of using solid fuels for children. We will also share statistics about the prevalence and frequency of various symptoms in children in our study sample from the baseline data.
T3: Similar to T2, except the information will be given to the primary cook.
C: No information will be shared until the final endline survey.

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer (in STATA)

Randomization Unit

Village

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

100

Sample size: planned number of observations

2000

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

25 villages each in 3 treatments and 1 control

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Health beliefs: 0.02 (probability), 2.6% or 0.22 SD Meals cooked on traditional stove: 1.08 meals, 8.6%, 0.24 SD Kg of Solid Fuel used: 1.29 kg, 30%, 0.23 SD LPG refills: 0.57 refills per year, 17.4%, 0.18 SD

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB