Long Term Effects Of a Maternal Cash Transfer Experiment

Not Applicable

Active, not recruiting

• Conditions: Maternal Health Services; Outcome Assessment
• Interventions: Behavioral: Cash transfer in prior study

• Registration Number: NCT05709457
• Lead Sponsor: RAND

Brief Summary

This is a follow-on study to a cluster randomized trial of maternal conditional incentives conducted in Nigeria. This study found that cash transfers, conditional on women obtaining facility-based prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care, resulted in large, significant effects on maternal and child outcomes (NICHD R01HD083444). This study will answer additional key policy questions. First, are the effects on maternal behavior temporary, or do they result in more sustained behavior change? Second, do measured short run (SR) child health effects persist over the long run? Third, did the program generate spillovers?

Detailed Description

This study will build on what the study investigators learned from the RCT and extend it in novel directions. Research assistants will return to the study communities approximately 5 years after enrollment in the RCT to collect data on utilization of maternal health care services for births to the trial participants after the intervention, and on long run child health outcomes including child weight and height. The research assistants will also collect data on the birth outcomes of non-incentivized childbearing women in the study clusters. Data will be collected through in-person surveys of study participants.

This study will provide valuable new evidence about the indirect and long run effects of demand-side incentives. This is of critical importance because accounting for only the direct effects may severely underestimate the full effect of the program.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2021-05-15
• Study First Submitted: 2022-10-19
• Study First Submitted QC: 2023-01-23
• Study First Posted: 2023-02-02
• Primary Completion: 2023-07-31
• Status Verified: 2024-07
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-07-30
• Last Update Posted: 2024-08-01
• Study Completion: 2025-04-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 21000

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
RCT Participants	Cash transfer in prior study	Women and children who participated in the earlier study.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Proportion of births that take place in a health facility	4-5 years after RCT enrollment	Proportion of births that take place in a health facility
Child health utilization	4-5 years after RCT enrollment	Proportion of children taken to a health facility for care when sick
Proportion of women that attended prenatal care during pregnancy	4-5 years after RCT enrollment	Proportion of women that attended prenatal care during pregnancy
Child survival	4-5 years after RCT enrollment	Probability that child is alive
Proportion of children receiving recommended immunizations	4-5 years after RCT enrollment	Proportion of children receiving recommended immunizations

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Child height	4-5 years after RCT enrollment	Child height measured at visit
Child weight	4-5 years after RCT enrollment	Child weight measured at visit
Maternal health	4-5 years after RCT enrollment	Self-rated health
Birth outcome	4-5 years after RCT enrollment	Probability of a live birth

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Amino Kano Teaching Hospital; 🇳🇬 Kano, Nigeria