Evaluation of an Infant Immunization Encouragement Program in Nigeria

Summary

Previous studies have shown that a small incentive can have a large impact on health behaviors like vaccinating children. New Incentives, an international non-governmental organization (NGO), aims to boost demand for immunization by offering cash incentives to caregivers who have their child vaccinated at a program clinic. In collaboration with New Incentives, IDinsight is conducting a study to see whether this approach will increase immunization in North West Nigeria. This study aims to investigate whether giving cash to caregivers in North West Nigeria who bring their infants to receive vaccination against common infections (tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, Haemophilus influenzae Type B (Hib), pneumococcal bacteria, measles, rotavirus, polio, yellow fever) increases the proportion of children who are immunized. The study's main hypothesis is that New Incentives' program will increase the percentage of children immunized with BCG, any PENTA, or Measles 1 by an average increase of at least 7-percentage points across all program clinics that share a similar profile to the clinics New Incentives will operate in at scale. The study is taking place in Jigawa, Katsina, and Zamfara States between August 2017 and January 2020.

Conditions

• Tuberculosis
• Diphtheria
• Tetanus
• Pertussis
• Hepatitis B
• Haemophilus Influenzae Type b Infection
• Pneumonia, Bacterial
• Measles
• Rotavirus Infections
• Polio
• Yellow Fever

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

All Babies Are Equal Initiative (conditional cash transfer program)

New Incentives, an NGO, offers cash incentives to caregivers for bringing their child to clinics for the first five visits of the Nigerian Routine Immunization schedule. These small cash transfers can provide some material benefit to new caregivers from poor communities. At a minimum, they help offset time and transport costs. The following vaccines are directly incentivized by the New Incentives' program: tuberculosis (BCG vaccine); diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae Type B (Pentavalent Vaccine), pneumococcal bacteria (PCV vaccine), measles vaccine.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• New Incentives

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• All Babies are Equal Initiative

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• GiveWell

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Alison Connor, PhD · IDinsight

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Months

Max Age

16 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-07-01

Primary Completion

2020-02-20

Completion

2020-02-20

Countries

• Nigeria