Love in the Time of HIV: How Beliefs About Externalities Impact Health Behavior

Appointments: A More Effective Commitment Device for Health Behaviors

“…Data from Zomba suggests this is the case in our setting: HIV test-positivity rates are much higher than the local prevalence of the virus (Derksen, Muula, and van Oosterhout 2021), so people who are likely to get tested for HIV under the status quo are at higher risk of HIV infection. This implies that the intervention may be successfully targeting high-risk men.…”

“…Third, the annual rate of HIV testing is fairly low in Zomba. Derksen, Muula, and van Oosterhout (2021) find that on average just 5 percent of the population per year voluntarily seek out an HIV test; 26 percent of our appointments arm got an HIV test in less than three months.…”

“…This enables us to accurately link HIV tests to study participants, and capture all HIV tests that took place in the study area. The voucher also helped to defray time or transportation costs of going to the clinic, and might have mitigated the stigma associated with HIV testing (Angelucci andBennett 2021,Derksen, Muula, andvan Oosterhout 2021). A financial reward for getting tested gives men a different "excuse" to go to the clinic (Thornton 2008, Ngatia 2016.…”

“…6 Information campaigns, on the other hand, can have low marginal costs if delivered through mass media, and a well-designed intervention can increase HIV testing by 40 to 100 percent (Banerjee, Ferrara, and Orozco-Olvera 2019;Derksen, Muula, and van Oosterhout 2021).…”