Delivering Effective Health Education in Developing Countries: Insights from a Field Experiment in India

Abstract

Health education programs for the general public have long been a popular and widely used policy tool to prevent disease and improve well-being. While a large literature has examined the effects of such programs on health outcomes, the effective modes of delivery of health education---particularly in developing countries---have received much less attention. This short paper considers two practicable yet largely unexplored avenues for implementing health education interventions: (1) using videos---a low-cost and easily scalable delivery channel; and (2) providing participants with a pay-for-performance cash reward for post-program health literacy. Employing a randomized field experiment in India, I find that video-based health education successfully increased health knowledge. Importantly, these gains persist almost one year later and correspond with more nutritious diets. At the same time, pay-for-performance incentives generally do not appear to boost the efficacy of health education. These insights contribute to our knowledge of what works for health education in low-income settings, so that better health education initiatives can be crafted for more meaningful impact.