NCT05766826

Coupons for Safe Water Project

Scaling up Coupons for Safe Water Treatment in Kenya

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 3,468 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Chicago · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Guaranteeing access to safe drinking water is still a challenge in rural households in developing countries, and unsafe water sources are responsible for millions of deaths each year around the world. Coupons for free dilute chlorine solution are a cost-effective and effective way of ameliorating child health and reducing diarrhea incidence. It is still an empirical challenge, however, to see if the positive health effects will be maintained when the program is implemented at scale. In this study, investigators conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) at scale to study the impacts of a chlorine coupon program implemented at health clinics on child health, including self-reported diarrhea, fever, and cough incidence in the previous two weeks. Investigators further investigate the pathway of the impact, such as self-reported and objectively measured use of chlorine and frequency of visits to health clinics.

Detailed description

Guaranteeing access to safe drinking water is still a challenge in rural households in developing countries, and unsafe water sources are responsible for millions of deaths each year around the world. Coupons for free dilute chlorine solution are (i) a cost-effective solution to targeting water treatment for households that need it and will use it and (ii) an effective way of ameliorating child health and reducing diarrhea incidence. It is still an empirical challenge, however, to see if the positive health effects will be maintained when the program is implemented at scale. In this study, investigators conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) at scale to study the impacts of a chlorine coupon program implemented at health clinics on child health, including self-reported diarrhea, fever, and cough incidence in the previous two weeks. Investigators further study the pathway of the impact, such as self-reported and objectively measured use of chlorine and frequency of visits to health clinics. Investigators monitor the program's impact at Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) sites in collaboration with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). Data collection includes child mortality, as well as verbal autopsies for deceased children. Data on mortality will be useful for future meta-analyses that pool data from multiple studies in order to estimate the mortality impact of free chlorine distribution schemes.

Conditions

• Death
• Death, Infant
• Diarrhea
• Diarrhea, Infantile
• Water-Borne Infectious Disease
• Water-Related Diseases

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Coupons for safe water program: Treatment	Randomly selected women in the treatment group will receive coupons for free chlorine solutions to be redeemed at the health facility each month.
OTHER	Coupons for safe water program: Control	Randomly selected women in the treatment group will not receive coupons for free chlorine solutions after enrollment.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-02-21
• Primary completion: 2026-02-28
• Completion: 2026-10-01
• First posted: 2023-03-13
• Last updated: 2023-03-13

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: Kenya