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Increasing breast-cancer screening uptake: A randomized controlled experiment

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  • Goldzahl, Léontine
  • Hollard, Guillaume
  • Jusot, Florence

Abstract

Early screening increases the likelihood of detecting cancer, thereby improving survival rates. National screening programs have been established in which eligible women receive a letter containing a voucher for a free screening. Even so, mammography use is often considered as remaining too low. We test four behavioral interventions in a large-scale randomized experiment involving 26,495 women. Our main assumption is that, due to biases in decision-making, women may be sensitive to the content and presentation of the invitation letter they receive. None of our treatments had any significant impact on mammography use. Sub-sample analysis suggests that this lack of a significant impact holds also for women invited for the first time and low-income women.

Suggested Citation

  • Goldzahl, Léontine & Hollard, Guillaume & Jusot, Florence, 2018. "Increasing breast-cancer screening uptake: A randomized controlled experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 228-252.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:58:y:2018:i:c:p:228-252
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.12.004
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    Cited by:

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    2. Shelley I. White-Means & Ahmad Reshad Osmani, 2018. "Affordable Care Act and Disparities in Health Services Utilization among Ethnic Minority Breast Cancer Survivors: Evidence from Longitudinal Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys 2008–2015," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-26, August.
    3. Stecher, Chad & Mukasa, Barbara & Linnemayr, Sebastian, 2021. "Uncovering a behavioral strategy for establishing new habits: Evidence from incentives for medication adherence in Uganda," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Hervelin Jérémy, 2022. "Directing young dropouts via SMS: evidence from a field experiment," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, January.
    5. Bertoni, Marco & Corazzini, Luca & Robone, Silvana, 2019. "Promoting Breast Cancer Screening Take-Ups with Zero Cost: Evidence from an Experiment on Formatting Invitation Letters in Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 12193, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cancer screening; Randomized controlled experiment; Behavioral interventions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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