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Nudges at the Dentist

Author Info

  • Altmann, Steffen

    ()

    (University of Copenhagen)

  • Traxler, Christian

    ()

    (Hertie School of Governance)

Abstract

We implement a randomized field experiment to study the impact of reminders on dental health prevention. Patients who are due for a check-up receive no reminder, a neutral reminder postcard, or reminders including additional information on the benefits of prevention. Our results document a strong impact of reminders. Within one month after receiving a reminder, the fraction of patients who make a check-up appointment more than doubles. The effect declines slightly over time, but remains economically and statistically significant. Including additional information in the reminders does not increase response rates. In fact, the neutral reminder has the strongest impact for the overall population as well as for important subgroups of patients. Finally, we document that being exposed to reminders repeatedly does neither strengthen nor weaken their effectiveness.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 6699.

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Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: Jul 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6699
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Keywords: prevention; dental health; field experiment; nudges; reminders; memory limitations; framing;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
  • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
  • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. The power of check-up reminders
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2012-08-06 13:47:00
  2. Weekly Roundup 186: A Curated Linkfest For The Smartest People On The Web!
    by Miguel in Simoleon Sense on 2012-09-16 04:29:18
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Cited by:

  1. Keith M Marzilli Ericson, 2014. "On the Interaction of Memory and Procrastination: Implications for Reminders," NBER Working Papers 20381, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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