The Impact of Personalized Risk Feedback and Information Utility on Health Self-Assessment and Preventive Behavior for Chronic Kidney Disease

Last registered on December 07, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Impact of Personalized Risk Feedback and Information Utility on Health Self-Assessment and Preventive Behavior for Chronic Kidney Disease
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016501
Initial registration date
August 26, 2025

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
September 01, 2025, 3:11 PM EDT

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

Last updated
December 07, 2025, 10:37 PM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Peking University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Peking University
PI Affiliation
Peking University
PI Affiliation
Peking University First Hospital

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-11-28
End date
2026-12-24
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the impact of personalized risk feedback and information utility framing on individuals' health self-assessments, emotional responses, and willingness to engage in preventive behaviors related to Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), and how to alleviate information avoidance in health. We will recruit participants through an online platform and present them with a CKD prevention campaign. In the first stage, we will collect baseline data on subjective health predictions, and emotional state. Participants will also provide basic health information to generate a personalized CKD risk assessment. In the second stage, participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: a control group that does not receive their risk assessment, a feedback group that receives their personalized risk score, and an information utility group that receives the risk score along with tailored messaging designed to either reassure low-risk individuals or motivate high-risk individuals. The third stage will measure key outcomes, including willingness to pay for a home-testing kit, willingness to receive a kit by mail, and subsequent self-reported use of the kit. A follow-up will be conducted to assess changes in anxiety levels and other emotional status. The study will evaluate the causal effect of risk feedback and the additional impact of the information utility nudge on promoting preventive health behaviors.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
An, Yunyi et al. 2025. "The Impact of Personalized Risk Feedback and Information Utility on Health Self-Assessment and Preventive Behavior for Chronic Kidney Disease." AEA RCT Registry. December 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16501-1.2
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
information provision through the online survey
Intervention Start Date
2025-12-17
Intervention End Date
2026-11-27

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to Pay
Willingness to Receive Kit
Kit Usage
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Willingness to Pay: A measure of the participant's willingness to pay for the home-testing kit, collected through a list of choices (allowing for negative values).
Willingness to Receive Kit: A binary variable indicating whether the participant agrees to provide a mailing address to receive a free home-testing kit.
Kit Usage: A self-reported binary variable indicating whether the participant used the home-testing kit (collected in the follow-up stage).

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Subjective Emotional Response
Anxiety Level (Follow-up)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Subjective Emotional Response: Measured on a 7-point Likert scale in response to the question: "How nervous/worried are you about this assessment result?"
Anxiety Level (Follow-up): A measure of the participant's anxiety about their kidney health, collected three days after the main experiment.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Research Questions:
Does providing personalized risk feedback for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) increase an individual's willingness to engage in preventive health behaviors (e.g., obtaining a test kit)?
Can the impact of risk feedback be enhanced by framing it with "information utility" messaging that emphasizes either peace of mind (for low-risk) or the value of early detection (for high-risk)?
Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the three experimental groups (Control, Feedback, Information Utility) with equal probability (1:1:1). The randomization will be conducted by the online platform's software. feedback group will receive information of their CKD assessment, information utility group will get information of assessment with tailored messaging to frame the utility of further testing.
How do different methods of risk communication affect an individual's emotional state, such as anxiety or worry, regarding their health?
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the three experimental groups (Control, Feedback, Information Utility) with equal probability (1:1:1). The randomization will be conducted by the online platform's software.
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
around 1000 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
1000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
3334 in control, 333 in feedback group (according to the risk level into low or high subgroup), 333 in information utility group (according to the risk level into low or high subgroup)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Peking University Institutional Review Board (PU_IRB)
IRB Approval Date
2025-09-05
IRB Approval Number
2025R0392-0002