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Can Cash Award Encourage Patients' Methadone Maintenance Treatment Attendance?

Last registered on April 20, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Can Cash Award Encourage Patients' Methadone Maintenance Treatment Attendance?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007568
Initial registration date
April 17, 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
April 20, 2021, 6:31 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
China
Region
Sichuan

Primary Investigator

Name
Yiming Xia
Affiliation
RIEM,Southwestern University of Finance and Economics
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Mengna Luan
PI Affiliation
RIEM, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Pedro Carneiro
PI Affiliation
Department of Economics, UCL
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2021-04-15
End date
2021-07-09
Keywords
Health, Labor
Additional Keywords
Addiction
JEL code(s)
I10 I12
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Low retention rate of Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) is a tough nut and research struggle to encourage patients to attend for MMT regularly. In this experiment, we encourage patients to overcome heroin addiction and maintain regular visit for MMT through group level and individual level cash award. In this context, we examine whether this MMT program (i) increases patients' attendance, (ii) changes patients' time preferences; (iii) improves patients' health condition; and lastly, (iv) improve patients' other living condition.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Carneiro, Pedro, Mengna Luan and Yiming Xia. 2021. "Can Cash Award Encourage Patients' Methadone Maintenance Treatment Attendance?." AEA RCT Registry. April 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7568-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We encourage the participants to attend for MMT regularly by cash incentives:
(1) cash award based on individual performance,
(2) cash award based on team performance
Intervention Start Date
2021-05-10
Intervention End Date
2021-06-09

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
MMT attendance, mental and physical health
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We record patients' everyday MMT attendance, then we construct monthly attendance.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Employment status, Consumption and Time use
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Employment status: whether participants work, how much they earn.
Time use: work, housework, indoor and outdoor leisure

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We recruit participants who is irregular MMT patients. The stratified randomization results in three treatment arms: (1) simple cash award based on participants' individual performance, (2) cash award based on team performance, as well as a (3) control. In the second treatment, the teams are formed randomly.

Experimental Design Details
For the outcomes, we test their time use, preference and mental health by questionnaires and collect adminstrative data to test their attendance.
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
330 patients
Sample size: planned number of observations
330 patients
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
110 patients control , 110 patients cash award (individual) and 110 patients cash award (group)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
2.5 days, unit and sd are about 90 people, s.d = 6, power 80%
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
West China Medical Center, Sichuan University
IRB Approval Date
2021-04-13
IRB Approval Number
K2021009
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
June 09, 2021, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
October 30, 2022, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
recruited 302 patients
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
admin 302 patients for main outcomes, 273 for survey outcomes
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
numbers of C/T1/T2 = 101/100/101 in admin and survey= 88/93/92
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

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Program Files

Program Files
Yes
Program Files URL
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials