Information Campaign Experiment - Intervention to fight anemia and improve well-being in a very low income setting

Last registered on October 08, 2013

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information Campaign Experiment - Intervention to fight anemia and improve well-being in a very low income setting
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000079
First published
October 08, 2013, 2:48 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Centre for Social and Behaviour Change at Ashoka University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
MIT
PI Affiliation
MIT

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2012-04-04
End date
2014-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) has been linked to low productivity in adults, slowing of cognitive and physical growth among children and, in the elderly, increased risk of cognitive impairment and physical disability, as well as decreased muscle strength.

Distributing iron supplements appears to be an impractical policy in resource-poor settings where the public health systems do not have the capacity to maintain a large-scale distribution system. Iron supplementation of foods is therefore an attractive alternative: it requires no additional effort on the part of the consumer, and can be done relatively cheaply in centralized locations. While NIN's Iron (and Iodine) Fortified Salt (DFS) has been studied extensively by the National Institute of Nutrition (Hyderabad) and others for safety and efficacy in humans, willingness to pay for this new technology has not been established.

In this experiment, we randomly assign screening of a 25-minute film on health benefits of adequate iron consumption, especially using Double Fortified Salt (DFS) along with a popular local language movie, to villages in order to estimate the impact of information on DFS take-up.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Banerjee, Abhijit, Sharon Barnhardt and Esther Duflo. 2013. "Information Campaign Experiment - Intervention to fight anemia and improve well-being in a very low income setting." AEA RCT Registry. October 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.79-1.0
Former Citation
Banerjee, Abhijit, Sharon Barnhardt and Esther Duflo. 2013. "Information Campaign Experiment - Intervention to fight anemia and improve well-being in a very low income setting." AEA RCT Registry. October 08. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/79/history/457
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
A 25 min short film in Bhojpuri on health benefits of adequate iron consumption in general and how DFS meets the iron needs of the body will be screened at the village level. In each village there will be:
1) A screening for the general public
2) A screening for women in a local health center

The health film will be clubbed with a popular local language movie to attract crowds.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2013-10-05
Intervention End Date
2014-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Average fraction of households in village buying DFS
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This trial is taking place in 14 blocks (administrative units below the district level) where we already have randomly assigned groups for related trials:
- Villages where DFS is being sold and control groups where it is not sold.
- In a randomly assigned subset of villages, a randomly assigned subset of households are being given DFS for free and control households are not being given DFS for free.

The movie experiment will be stratified by cells made up of block*DFS sales treatment status*free DFS treatment status. In each stratum a random 30% of the total number of villages gets the movie screening. There are 14 blocks and 3 possible interactions of DFS sales treatment status*free DFS treatment status (Treatment Free DFS, Treatment Non Free DFS, Control Non Free DFS).

In total 124 sample villages will be shown the DFS film and local language movie.

Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
village level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
400 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
400 villages
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
124 villages (Film Treatment), 276 (Film Control)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
IRB Approval Date
2013-09-24
IRB Approval Number
1101004293

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