A Behavioral Intervention to Increase Women's Cancer Screening

Last registered on April 29, 2020
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
A Behavioral Intervention to Increase Women's Cancer Screening
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0004716
Initial registration date
January 28, 2020

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
March 19, 2020, 12:12 PM EDT

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

Last updated
April 29, 2020, 12:29 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Uruguay
Region
Montevideo

Primary Investigator

Name
Sebastian Gallegos
Affiliation
Inter-American Development Bank
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Ana Cuesta
PI Affiliation
Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
PI Name
Benjamin Roseth
PI Affiliation
Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
PI Name
Mario Sanchez
PI Affiliation
Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2019-10-10
End date
2020-04-15
Keywords
Governance, Health
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
D9, I1
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Cervical cancer is an important cause of mortality worldwide. The Papanicolaou (Pap) test reduces its incidence and mortality rates, but despite the supply of these services at no cost many women fail to take it. We designed a four-arm field experiment designed to increase the PAP screening in Uruguay. We aim to send 70,000 personalized text messages to 45,000 women over a 12-week period, targeting malleable factors that potentially drive low screening rates. Using administrative records from national health services, we will examine whether the intervention increased screening appointments and Pap take-up rates. We will also test differential effects by socioeconomic status, education and time since the last screening test was taken, if any. We will also implement an end-line survey to measure beliefs about the importance of testing, and how prone women are to use digital tools and receive text messages to increase their preventive health behaviors.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Gallegos, Sebastian et al. 2020. "A Behavioral Intervention to Increase Women's Cancer Screening ." AEA RCT Registry. April 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4716-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We designed a four-arm field experiment designed to increase the PAP screening in Uruguay. We aim to send 70,000 personalized text messages to 20,000 women over a 12-week period, targeting malleable factors that potentially drive low screening rates. Using administrative records from national health services, we will examine whether the intervention increased screening appointments and Pap take-up rates. We will also test differential effects by socioeconomic status, education and time since the last screening test was taken, if any. We will also implement an end-line survey to measure beliefs about the importance of testing, and how prone women are to use digital tools and receive text messages to increase their preventive health behaviors.
Intervention Start Date
2019-11-18
Intervention End Date
2020-03-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Fraction of women who make an appointment for PAP cancer screening
Fraction of women who attend the appointment for PAP cancer screening
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We designed a four-arm field experiment designed to increase the PAP screening in Uruguay. We aim to send 70,000 personalized text messages to 20,000 women over a 12-week period, targeting malleable factors that potentially drive low screening rates.
Our treatment first two arms send loss-aversion messages and encouragement/information messages. The next two arms do the same but include a personalized link to make screening appointments. We designed the experiment to have statistical power to detect heterogeneous treatment effects by socioeconomic status, education and time since the last screening test was taken, if any.


Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer, code for replication in Stata
Randomization Unit
individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
20,000 women, no clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
20,000 women, no clusters
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Control Group; 24,000
Treatment Arm 1: 5,000
Treatment Arm 2: 5,000
Treatment Arm 3: 5,000
Treatment Arm 4: 5,000
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Comite de Bioetica en Investigacion de INCA (Uruguay)
IRB Approval Date
2019-10-07
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

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