Attitude towards alternative organ procurement systems in Africa

Last registered on May 21, 2024

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Attitude towards alternative organ procurement systems in Africa

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0013636

Initial registration date

May 16, 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 21, 2024, 11:31 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Ghana

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Jan Priebe

Affiliation

Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM)

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2024-05-21

End date

2024-06-24

Keywords

Health

Additional Keywords

Africa, organ donation, incentives, morals

JEL code(s)

D63, D64, I11

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

Our study aims to explore preferences towards alternative kidney procurement systems in five sub-Saharan African countries. A focus of the study will be to explore how moral foundations and religious beliefs shape respondents’ attitudes towards alternative organ procurement systems.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Priebe, Jan. 2024. "Attitude towards alternative organ procurement systems in Africa." AEA RCT Registry. May 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13636-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention 1: Each respondent is randomized into 1 out of 16 possible scenarios. Each scenario presents 1 specific alternative organ procurement system

Intervention 2: Psychological primes with 1 control and 1 treatment group

Intervention Start Date

2024-05-21

Intervention End Date

2024-06-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Preference for/against alternative kidney procurement systems

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Preference towards alternative organ procurement system (binary indicators): Binary indicators will refer to (a) unincentivized preference statement for the introduction of an alternative organ procurement system and (b) incentivized preference statement (click on Facebook share button).

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Vignettes: Individuals will be randomized into 1 out of 16 scenarios. Each scenario presents an alternative kidney transplantation system (compared to the status quo). Within each scenario every respondent will be asked to state his/her (dis-) approval for 5 alternative hypothetical supply levels of kidney donations coming from the alternative kidney procurement system.

Psychological primes: We employ psychological primes to stimulate individuals into thinking about the role of organs in traditional African beliefs. Randomization will be at the individual level and involve 1 control and 1 treatment prime.

Experimental Design Details

Further information on mechanisms that we commit to examine in our setting:

Secondary outcomes include variables that we will use to investigate mechanisms through heterogeneous treatment effects. Secondary outcomes are related to the following mechanisms:
• Religious and spiritual attitudes
• Altruism
• Effectiveness (# of new organ donations) of alternative organ procurement system
• Type of organ procurement system: exchange system vs. undirected system
• Regional scope of organ procurement system: National vs. international
• Compensation for organ donation: No incentive vs. waiting list vs. payments
• Amount of compensation for organ donation system
• Source of payment for organ: individual vs. government
• Own health status and family experience with organ failure
• Social image concerns, social desirability, consequentiality of decision, trust into local-level institutions

Randomization Method

Randomization is done by online-survey software (UniPark)

Randomization Unit

Individual-level

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Not clustered

Sample size: planned number of observations

10,000 respondents

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Primes: 5000 control, 5000 treatment arm
Vignette scenarios: about 650 observations per arm

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

• Comparison across unique alternative organ donation systems: In a basic group means comparison with 80% power, a significance level of 0.05, and unit standard deviations, the MDE is .15pp for the total sample of 1,440 respondents (Assumption: Baseline mean of 0.6 & 1 treatment vs. 1 control group comparison). • Comparison across prime schemes: In a basic group means comparison with 80% power, a significance level of 0.05, and unit standard deviations, the MDE is .056pp for the total sample of 10,000 respondents (Assumption: Baseline mean of 0.6 & 1 treatment vs. 1 control group comparison).

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB