Philippine Child Health and Policy Experiment

NCT00678197 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Last updated 2015-05-04

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The long-term consequences of poverty on child health, including cognitive development, are one of the world's great tragedies. In the Philippines, diarrhea, acute lower respiratory infections, and the attendant problems of malnutrition, are the leading causes of childhood illness. The Philippine government plans to launch a broad national Health Sector Reform Agenda (HSRA) that will address the problems of poverty and illness in children. The introduction of these reforms provides an exceptional opportunity to conduct a social experiment. Four institutions, already involved in the design and implementation of the HSRA, plus leading experts in international health, government, and health measurement will collaborate on this project to collect longitudinal data and measure the impact of HSRA reforms on child health outcomes in a population. We will measure the health impacts of two experimental interventions: (1) expansion of health insurance coverage, and (2) capitation of providers. Our research will measure the impact of health reforms on the physical and cognitive health outcomes of children age 0-4. We will use a block design of 21 sites throughout the Philippines: seven for each of the two interventions, and seven matched controls. We will measure the quality of clinical practice using vignettes and will measure health outcomes using objective clinical tests. We will also use an advanced sampling strategy and panel data to link clinical practice with population health outcomes. This unparalleled research opportunity will yield significant insights about specific, unanswered questions of tremendous importance: Does health care serve as a social intervention that ameliorates the effects of morbidity and malnutrition on cognitive development? How effective are government policies at creating incentives to improve the quality of clinical practice? Do financial and organizational policies actually lead to better health and developmental outcomes? The results from this study will provide insights into the linkages between increased access, high quality care, and health outcomes in children.

Conditions

  • Childhood Illness

Interventions

OTHER

Access Intervention

OTHER

Bonus/Pay-for-Performance Intervention

Sponsors & Collaborators

Study Design

Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Eligibility

Min Age
6 Months
Max Age
5 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2003-04-30
Primary Completion
2007-09-30
Completion
2007-09-30

Countries

  • Philippines

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00678197 on ClinicalTrials.gov