Heterogeneous Effects of Information on Household Behaviors to Improve Water Quality

Brown, Joe; Hamoudi, Amar; Jeuland, Marc; Turrini, Gina

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2467112

Cited by 5 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…In the direction of the software interventions or of the supply of “information and education,” existing studies highlight that households in poor resource settings consume contaminated water sources due to the lack of adequate information on the quality of different water sources. Interestingly, several studies have examined the role of information in addressing the choice and use of safe water sources (Okyere, 2018; Okyere, Pangaribowo, Asante & von Braun, 2017; Brown, Hamoudi, Jeuland, & Turrini, 2014; Hamoudi et al, 2012; Jalan & Somanathan, 2008; Madajewicz et al, 2007). One peculiar characteristic with water quality information, unlike other products, is the requirement for some form of “formal” testing to determine the type of contaminants present in a given sample (Okyere, 2018; Okyere, Pangaribowo, Asante & von Braun, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Household Water Quality Testing and Information: Identifying Impacts on Health Outcomes and Sanitation- and Hygiene-Related Risk-Mitigating Behaviors

2019

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Background: In 2014, a group of 512 households in multipurpose water systems and also relying on unimproved water, sanitation, and hygiene practices in the Greater Accra region of Ghana were randomly selected to participate in water quality self-testing and also receipt of information in the form of handouts on how to improve water quality. Objectives and Research Design: Using a cluster-randomized controlled design, we study the health, sanitation, and hygiene behavior impacts of the household water quality testing and information experiment. Subjects: The study has three arms: (1) adult household members, (2) schoolgoing children, and (3) control group. Measures: The study measures the effects on handwashing with soap, cleanliness of households, and prevalence of diarrhea and self-reported fever. We also address impacts on child health and nutrition outcomes, particularly diarrhea and anthropometric outcomes. Results: We show that there is high household willingness to participate in this intervention on water quality self-testing. About 7 months after households took part in the intervention, the study finds little impacts on health outcomes and on sanitation- and hygiene-related risk-mitigating behaviors, regardless of the intervention group, either schoolchildren or adult household members. Impacts (direction and extent) are rather homogeneous for most of the outcomes across treatment groups. Conclusions: The study discusses the implications of the findings and also offers several explanations for the lack of transmission of impacts from the household water quality testing and information intervention on health outcomes and on sanitation and hygiene behaviors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Household Water Quality Testing and Information: Identifying Impacts on Health Outcomes and Sanitation- and Hygiene-Related Risk-Mitigating Behaviors

2019

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“…Therefore, little conclusion can be drawn from the child anthropometric data. This is unsurprising as it takes a long time to observe detectable improvements in anthropometric measures and the time frame of this study was not long enough for such improvements to be observed, as is the case in other similar studies (Boisson et al, 2013;Brown et al, 2014;and Okyere et al, 2015). However, children in a BRAC WASH treatment household were slightly less likely to be stunted, and children in a WASH-agriculture treatment household had the highest likelihood of being stunted or underweight after the treatment.…”

Section: ) Impact On Child Health (Anthropometrics)mentioning

confidence: 60%

Can a Specially Designed Information Intervention Around the Wash-Agriculture Linkages Make Any Difference? Experimental Evidence of Behavioral Changes and Health Impacts

et al. 2016

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The CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH (ZEF) was established in 1995 as an international, interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Bonn. Research and teaching at ZEF addresses political, economic and ecological development problems. ZEF closely cooperates with national and international partners in research and development organizations. For information, see: www.zef.de. ZEF-Discussion Papers on Development Policy are intended to stimulate discussion among researchers, practitioners and policy makers on current and emerging development issues. Each paper has been exposed to an internal discussion within the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and an external review. The papers mostly reflect work in progress. The Editorial Committee of the ZEF-DISCUSSION PAPERS ON DEVELOPMENT POLICY include Joachim von Braun (Chair), Christian Borgemeister, and Eva Youkhana. Tobias Wünscher is Managing Editor of the series.

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“…This is an improvement on previous studies (e.g. Brown et al, 2014;Madajewicz et al, 2007;Hamoudi et al, 2012;Jalan and Somanthan, 2008) that used presence or absence test kits. The study design is based on water quality self-testing and recording of results at the household level.…”

mentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Each household was given two copies of the hand-outs for reference and also discussions with other household members. The hand-outs containing the water quality improvement messages were designed using messages from previous studies such as Brown et al, (2014) and Hamoudi et al, (2012). The water quality self-testing was done at the convenience of the participants and recording of results made on a sheet/diary provided by the study team.…”

Section: Water Quality Testing and Information Experiments Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The outcome variables were selected based on previous studies (Günther and Schipper (2013); Madajewicz et al, 2007;Hamoudi et al, 2012;Devoto et al, (2012); Kremer et al 2011;Lucas et al, (2011);Brown et al, 2014) and were pre-specified in an earlier unpublished article and workshop presentations before commencement of the follow-up surveys. For ease of reference, the selected outcomes on safe water behaviors have being classified into five categories: water source choices; water quality, treatment and health risk; water transport, collection and handling techniques; water quantity, and consumption/usage; and water storage behaviors.…”

Section: Reduced Formmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impacts of Household Water Quality Testing and Information on Safe Water Behaviors: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Ghana

et al. 2017

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Contributions and comments by seminar participants at ZEF and other conferences greatly improved the content of the paper. We thank the entire field assistants for their excellent work during data collection and rolling-out of the experiment. We are very much grateful to all the participating public basic schools and households for their time and cooperation. We acknowledge with gratitude the contributions by Daniel Tsegai, Devesh Rustagi, Michael Kosfeld, Julia Anna Matz, Nicolas Gerber, Vincent Nartey Kyere, and Guido Lüchters during research design and drafting of publication. We thank Frank Otchere for undertaking the randomization process. The conclusions of the paper are strictly those of the authors and not those of the funding agencies. Terms of use: Documents in AbstractHouseholds in developing countries face an enormous set of health risks from using contaminated water sources. In 2014, a group of 512 households relying on unimproved water, sanitation and hygiene practices in the Greater Accra region of Ghana were randomly selected to participate in the intervention on water quality self-testing and to receive water quality improvement messages (information). The treatment group was separated into two groups: (1) a school children intervention group and (2) an adult household members intervention group, to identify the role of intra-household decision making or resource allocation in the delivery of water quality information. The comparison group neither participated in the water quality self-testing nor received information. The impacts of the experiment are estimated using intention-to-treat (ITT), instrumental variable (IV) and differences-in-differences (DiD) estimators. Participation rate, which is used as a proxy for uptake, is higher among the school children intervention group in comparison to the adult intervention group. The results show that the household water quality testing and information experiment increase the choice of improved water sources and other safe water behaviors. The study implies that household water quality testing and information could be used as "social marketing" strategy in achieving safe water behaviors. The school children intervention group is more effective in the delivery of water quality information, thereby making a strong case of using school children as "agents of change" in improving safe water behaviors. The study also finds limited evidence of gender differentiated impacts based on the gender of the ...

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Heterogeneous Effects of Information on Household Behaviors to Improve Water Quality

Cited by 5 publications

References 38 publications

Household Water Quality Testing and Information: Identifying Impacts on Health Outcomes and Sanitation- and Hygiene-Related Risk-Mitigating Behaviors

Household Water Quality Testing and Information: Identifying Impacts on Health Outcomes and Sanitation- and Hygiene-Related Risk-Mitigating Behaviors

Can a Specially Designed Information Intervention Around the Wash-Agriculture Linkages Make Any Difference? Experimental Evidence of Behavioral Changes and Health Impacts

The Impacts of Household Water Quality Testing and Information on Safe Water Behaviors: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Ghana

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