Information Constraints and Preventive Behavior amongst COVID-19 Risk Groups in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, strict lockdown measures are eased and individual preventive behavior might decrease. At the same time, neither effective treatment nor vaccination are available, so that it remains crucial to shield in particular the population groups that are at higher risk to experience a complicated disease course from an infection. Such individual preventive behavior is particularly relevant in resource-constrained settings, where access to adequate healthcare services is limited, such as in our study location in Pakistan. To motivate the adoption of such measures, the government of Pakistan has issued detailed recommendations for preventive actions for its population and spread this message through various channels. Data from our telephone survey with low-income households shows though that gaps in knowledge and practice prevail. We are therefore evaluating whether a more targeted and personalized information campaign of the local public health service (Social Health Protection Initiative) can contribute to narrowing this gap, especially for the at-risk population.
The expected outcome of this trial is twofold: first, we test whether the SMS-based information campaign can increase the knowledge and adoption of recommended actions in both the general and the at-risk population. Beyond the effectiveness in both groups, we test whether light personalization based on the risk group increases this effect. Secondly, through the combination of the interview and health insurance enrollment as well as claims data, we plan to demonstrate the scale-up potential of such an intervention. This will on the one hand shed light on a low-cost complement in the control of a pandemic and showcase the possibility to use administrative data to effectively target the most vulnerable when resources are limited.