Learning, Hygiene and Traditional Medicine

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bennett, Daniel; Naqvi, Asjad; Schmidt, Wolf-Peter
• 署名单位: University of Southern California; Vienna University of Economics & Business; University of London; London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12549
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: F545-F574
• 关键词: early-childhood diarrhea; health-seeking behavior; technology adoption; perry preschool; disease risk; rural china; INFORMATION; care; intervention; sanitation

摘要

Information provision is only an effective behaviour-change strategy if the information is credible. A novel programme augments conventional hygiene instruction by showing participants everyday microbes under a microscope. Through a randomised evaluation in Pakistan, we show that this programme leads to meaningful hygiene and health improvements, while instruction alone does not. Traditional medicine, which offers an alternative disease model, may undermine learning by strengthening prior beliefs about hygiene. We show that believers in traditional medicine have smaller impacts, suggesting that traditional and modern medical beliefs are substitutes and that traditional medicine may exacerbate the infectious disease burden in this context.