Reducing racial disparities in health outcomes is a major policy concern in the United States. Although there has been recent progress to close the gap, black men continue to experience earlier morbidity and mortality from preventable and manageable medical conditions, and live on average 4.2 years less than their white male peers. An oft-prescribed solution to close this stubborn gap is to increase the diversity of the healthcare workforce. Another common policy tool to increase take-up of preventative healthcare services is financial incentives. In this randomized evaluation, we will estimate the effects of financial incentives and a racially concordant physician on the uptake of preventive health services in Oakland, California.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
1,374
We will be randomizing across providers - we are particularly interested in racial concordance.
Barbershops / Fleamarkets
Oakland, California, United States
Average Take-up of Preventive Services (Post-consultation)
Take-up of preventative services was scored as either zero (did not utilize any post-consultation services) or 1 (utilized at least 1 post-consultation service). Four non-incentivized post-consultation preventive services were offered (for BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol, and/or diabetes); the subject had the opportunity to select service(s) after meeting with their assigned doctor.
Time frame: 1 day
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