The Oakland Men's Health Disparities Study

Last registered on October 06, 2017

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

A Randomized Trial to Identify the Effects of Provider Race on the Health Behavior of Black Men

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0002497

Initial registration date

October 05, 2017

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

October 06, 2017, 2:10 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Oakland, CA

Primary Investigator

Name

Marcella Alsan

Affiliation

Harvard Kennedy School

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Grant Graziani

PI Affiliation

University of California - Berkeley

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Owen Garrick

PI Affiliation

Bridge Clinical

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2017-10-07

End date

2018-03-10

Keywords

Health

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Reducing racial disparities in health outcomes is a major policy concern in the United States. Although there has been recent progress to close the gap, black men continue to experience earlier morbidity and mortality from preventable and manageable medical conditions, and live on average 3.5 years less than their white male peers. An oft-prescribed solution to close this stubborn gap is to increase the diversity of the healthcare workforce. Another common policy tool to increase take-up of preventative healthcare services is conditional cash transfers (CCTs). In this randomized evaluation, we will estimate the effects of CCTs and a racially concordant physician on the uptake of preventive health services in Oakland, California.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Alsan, Marcella, Owen Garrick and Grant Graziani. 2017. "A Randomized Trial to Identify the Effects of Provider Race on the Health Behavior of Black Men." AEA RCT Registry. October 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2497-1.0

Former Citation

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2017-10-14

Intervention End Date

2018-03-10

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The primary outcome is the number of preventative care services selected by the participants at our free clinic. Whether subjects elect to receive a flu shot.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

The secondary outcomes is whether the subject would refer their peers to the clinic and /or doctor. We are also interested in the primary outcome dis-aggregated by mistrust and other background characteristics as discussed in the analysis plan.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We plan to randomly assign doctors to participants and offer a list of preventative care treatments that the participant can avail from the assigned doctor. We will also ask the participant about his medical history and his perceptions/attitudes towards healthcare. The participants will be adult African American males.
The primary recruitment site will be barbershops. In addition to barbershops, we will also recruit at flea markets in Oakland and Berkeley. Participants will be told about the study and requested to fill in a baseline survey in exchange for a $25 cash voucher that can be redeemed at the barbershop itself. Participants at flea markets will be offered a $10 bill instead of vouchers. We will request the participants to then visit a study clinic, which we will set up in Oakland, in exchange for $50. Participants will also be offered a free Uber ride to the clinic. At the clinic, the participants will randomly be assigned one of the doctors present. Before they meet the doctor, they will need to fill out a tablet-based clinic survey. The tablet will randomly assign one of three vouchers, of value $0, $5, $10, to the participants for flu shots. The participants will then select the preventative care they want to receive from the doctor.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

We are using computer randomization via Survey CTO.

Randomization Unit

The unit of randomization is individuals. Doctors will randomly be assigned to one patient each at a time.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

No clusters

Sample size: planned number of observations

1,500 individuals (African American men) will be recruited and 750 will be randomized.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1,500 African American men will be randomly assigned to black or non-black doctors with a 50% chance of being assigned to each type of doctor. We expect 750 subjects to present at the clinic, these 750 will be randomized.

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

Stanford University

IRB Approval Date

2017-10-01

IRB Approval Number

4947

Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal