Uncover your risk! Using Facebook to increase the awareness of diabetes in Indonesia

Last registered on July 02, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Uncover your risk! Using Facebook to increase the awareness of diabetes in Indonesia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008781
Initial registration date
January 24, 2022

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
January 24, 2022, 9:37 AM EST

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

Last updated
July 02, 2023, 10:21 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Indonesia
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Michael Grimm
Affiliation
University of Passau
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Manuela Fritz
PI Affiliation
University of Passau and University of Groningen
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Ingmar Weber
PI Affiliation
Qatar Computing Research Institute
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Elad Yom-Tov
PI Affiliation
Microsoft Research and Technion
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-03-01
End date
2022-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Health
Additional Keywords
Health, Diabetes, Facebook, Findrisk, Screening, Prevention, Indonesia
JEL code(s)
I10, I12, I18, D83, D91
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Using social media to distribute health related information has become increasingly common, especially in light of the recent Covid-19 pandemic. In this study, we assess whether social media – in particular Facebook – can serve as an efficient and cost-effective tool to increase the awareness about diabetes type 2 in Indonesia, where the prevalence of the diesease – and with it the rates of undiagnosed cases – has dramatically increased in the last decade. We use Facebook’s advertisement function to randomly distribute informative ads related to the risk and consequences of diabetes to Indonesian Facebook users above the age of 21. The ads differ in their content and graphical design, but equally invite viewers of the ads to visit an information website on which they can participate in a diabetes self-screening activity (Findrisk test), which determines the risk of having or developing diabetes. Depending on their determined risk score, participants will receive a recommendation to contact their GP and ask for an in-depth screening. We investigate which type of advertisement content and graphic is able to generate the highest number of clicks, website visits and completed screenings per view to derive policy recommendations about (cost-)effective designs for health-related awareness campaigns in the context of surging rates of non-communicable diseases in low-and middle-income countries.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Fritz, Manuela et al. 2023. "Uncover your risk! Using Facebook to increase the awareness of diabetes in Indonesia." AEA RCT Registry. July 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8781-3.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2022-04-01
Intervention End Date
2022-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Number of views per ad, clicks per ad, views of information page per ad, number of tests started, number of tests completed, costs per view, costs per click, costs per started screening questionnaire and cost per completed questionnaire.

We will also assess:
- Survey participation (in the addtional survey after the test) as a function of ads
- Survey participation (in the addtional survey after the test) as a function of find risk score
- Findrisk score as a function of ads (should not have an effect)
- Findrisk score as a function of find risk survey characteristics and characteristics observed in larger survey characteristics
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment will be designed in the form of an online health awareness campaign implemented via the social media platform Facebook. We will randomize ads that differ in their design and content. Specifically, we will randomize different groups of ads, with each group representing a different channel (i.e. social or information) or aspect of diabetes. Each ad groups consists of 2-3 different ads.
Experimental Design Details
The target group of the study includes all Indonesian male and female Facebook users above the age of 21, which live in either Jakarta or Yogyakarta – the two cities with the highest diabetes prevalence rates in the country.

The experiment will be designed in the form of an online health awareness campaign implemented via the social media platform Facebook. We will randomize the ads that differ in their design and content. Specifically, we will randomize different groups of ads, with each group representing one of the channels outlined above. Each ad groups consists of 2-3 different ads.

We will use Facebook’s A/B-Test to implement the randomization procedure. This A/B-Test design allows us to specify that the exact same budget amount is allocated to each ad group and to thereby circumvent that Facebook’s algorithms determine the budget allocation towards the ad groups. Each ad group receives a budget of €10 per day, summing to a total budget of €60 per day for a total of 6 different ad groups. The awareness campaign will for the maximum period possible for the A/B test, which is currently restricted to one month. The planned period for the final campaign – after running a short pilot – is April 2022.

The randomization is taking place at the individual level, no clustering is applied. There is no pre-defined number of individuals/observations for this study, but we aim to reach at least 200 users per ad-group that click on the ads to be redirected to the website and to participate in the self-screening. If after the period of one month the minimum number of participants has not been reached, we plan to extent the campaign for another month.

Randomization Method
Randomization done automatically via Facebook
Randomization Unit
The randomization will take place at the individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
(No clustering) - We aim to reach as many individuals as possible, but at least 1200 in total.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We aim to reach as many individuals as possible, but at least 1200 in total.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Per treatment (ad-group) we aim to reach 200 individuals.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Passau Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2022-03-15
IRB Approval Number
I-07.5090/2022
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

PAP_Facebook_Diabetes_January 2022

MD5: 6e13df6e74527f6168329adb13ab5e32

SHA1: 0d96320f4a9e8f94fc64d257b5aebfb66ce9cf7e

Uploaded At: January 24, 2022

Appendix_PAP_Facebook_July2023

MD5: c155b36105862383cc4956aeb0d7c1ea

SHA1: ea52519b325e9659ef293a0d30cd2b6ac9995a96

Uploaded At: July 02, 2023

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
April 05, 2022, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
April 05, 2022, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
1533 individuals (no clustering)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
1533 individuals (no clustering)
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials