Preventing dengue through mobile phones: evidence from a field experiment in Peru

Abstract

Dengue is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease in the world (WHO, 2009). During the last two decades, the dramatic rise in the number of dengue infections has been particularly evident in Latin American and the Caribbean countries. This paper examines the experimental evidence of the effectiveness of mobile phone technology in improving households' health preventive behavior in dengue-endemic areas. The main results suggest that repeated exposure to health information encourages households' uptake of preventive measures against dengue. As a result, the Breteau Index in treatment households, an objective measure of dengue risk transmission, is 0.10 standard deviations below the mean of the control group, which shows a reduction in the number of containers per household that test positive for dengue larvae. The estimates also show marginally significant effects of the intervention on self-reported dengue symptoms. Moreover, we use a multiple treatment framework that randomly assigns households to one of the four treatment groups in order to analyze the impacts of framing on health behavior. Different variants emphasized information on monetary and non-monetary benefits and costs. The main results show no statistical differences among treatment groups.

Keywords: Dengue; Experimental design; Framing; Peru; e-Health.