Did you know? The effect of SMS reminders on health screening uptake in Indonesia

Konferenzbeitrag

While the burden of non-communicable diseases is rising in low- and middle-income countries, the uptake of screening for these diseases remains low. We conducted a community-based RCT in Indonesia to assess whether personalized and targeted text messages can increase the demand for existing public screening services for diabetes and hypertension in the at-risk population. Our intervention increased screening uptake by approximately 6.6 percentage points compared to the pure control group. Among those, who received and read the messages, the effect size is 17 percentage points. The intervention appears to work through a reminder rather than a knowledge effect. We conclude that text messages can be a cheap and easily scalable tool to reduce testing gaps in a middle-income country setting.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2021: Climate Economics

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Field Experiments ; Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness ; Health Behavior ; Health and Economic Development ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
• Subject: Health ; Noncommunicable Diseases ; Information ; Health Systems ; Screening Uptake ; mHealth ; text message reminder

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Marcus, Maja-Emilia ; Reuter, Anna ; Rogge, Lisa ; Vollmer, Sebastian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics
• (where): Kiel, Hamburg
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/242404
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET