Health, Wellbeing and household dynamics among Women and Vulnerable Population in the times of COVID-19

Last registered on August 17, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Health, Wellbeing and household dynamics among Women and Vulnerable Population in the times of COVID-19
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007296
Initial registration date
August 16, 2021

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
August 17, 2021, 4:27 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
India
Region
Uttar Pradesh

Primary Investigator

Name
Debayan Pakrashi
Affiliation
Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Myra Yazbeck
PI Affiliation
University of Ottawa
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PI Name
Chitwan Lalji
PI Affiliation
IIM Kozhikode
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-04-01
End date
2024-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Health, Welfare
Additional Keywords
women, household chores, childcare, pandemic, domestic violence, wellbeing
JEL code(s)
D83, I10, I12, I18, I31, J61
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
In the proposed project, we are particularly interested in understanding the determinants of mental health and wellbeing of female members of the households, who are responsible for most of the household chores, elderly and child care and are also most likely to be victims of domestic violence with everyone restricted to their houses, and especially so in case they and/or their husbands are returnee migrants or have lost their jobs/sources of income. With limited interaction with friends and neighbors, along with increased household responsibilities, woman could feel stressed, isolated and lonely, without access to any kind of counseling. We are particularly interested in examining what works best for women in an Indian setting – counseling in the form of an in-person one-to-on counselling or an anonymous support in a discussion group.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Lalji, Chitwan, Debayan Pakrashi and Myra Yazbeck. 2021. "Health, Wellbeing and household dynamics among Women and Vulnerable Population in the times of COVID-19." AEA RCT Registry. August 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7296-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In the proposed project we will be able to assess whether counseling have any positive effects on women’s health and wellbeing and if yes, whether individual one-to-one counselling or anonymous group discussions (social support) is most effective in the current Indian setting.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2021-08-01
Intervention End Date
2021-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Changes between pre-treatment and post-treatment surveys in women’s health and wellbeing captured via mental health measured using perceived stress scale (PSS), GHQ-12, etc.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Happiness, hopes and aspirations and time-use. Wellbeing of other family members including children.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The objective is to assess whether tele-counselling/mentoring sessions (as proposed) have any positive effects on women’s health and wellbeing and if yes, whether individual one-to-one counselling or anonymous group discussions (social support) is most effective in the current Indian setting.

Experimental Design Details
We plan to conduct a Randomized Control Trial among 1,200 women in various slums in Kanpur. Randomization will be conducted at the slum level. So, 60 slums will be randomly assigned to three treatment and control groups (20 slums each). The different treatment arms will be as follows:

Treatment Group-1:
400 women, randomly selected from the total 1,200 women selected from the 60 slums, will participate in regular tele-counseling and coaching sessions - focused on mental health, self-care, time management, the importance of having a proper schedule and ways to deal with the increased pressure in the household as well as domestic violence.

Treatment Group-2:
Another randomly selected sample of 400 women from 20 slums will participate in a weekly discussion group guided by the coach. The discussion group will bring together 4 to 5 women with the trained coach into a virtual meeting once a month at a pre-determined time (to be determined with participants) for two months. The participants will get an opportunity to share their troubles (maybe of being overworked or loneliness/isolation) with each other and share their experiences. The mentor or counsellor will moderate and guide the sessions.

Control group: 400 women from 20 slums will receive no treatment.
Experimental Design Details
The proposed research will focus on 1200 respondents from an existing survey conducted in 2018 and 2020 covering 60 different slums in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. This survey conducted in 2018 and 2020 shall be the pre-COVID surveys. We shall conduct a follow-up telephonic survey to gauge the current situation (physical health, mental health, time-use, incidence of domestic violence, feelings of loneliness, isolation and anxiety, etc.) of women who belong to families of migrants, returnee migrants or families who have lost their main source of family income. After the follow-up session, respondents shall be assigned to one of the three groups. Respondents in treatment group – 1 shall receive an individual in-person support, while respondents in treatment group – 2 shall receive an anonymous social group support. The third group – the control group – shall receive no support. This will be followed by at least one end line survey, which will help us assess whether the intervention has been successful and which intervention works best in the Indian context. This will help us identify the most effective pathway to promote health and wellbeing of women.
Randomization Method
Randomization shall be done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Randomization shall be done at the slum level, 60 slums will be randomly assigned to the three treatment and control groups, with 20 slums in each group.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
60 slums
Sample size: planned number of observations
1200 women
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
400 women each in treatment group-1, treatment group-2 and the control group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC), Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
IRB Approval Date
2021-02-18
IRB Approval Number
IITK/IEC/2020-21/II/06
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