Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30177864›Full record

ArticleJournal of development economics2018

The impact of packaging and messaging on adherence to malaria treatment: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Uganda.

Jessica Cohen, Indrani Saran

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of development economics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Behavioral Interventions Improve Mailed Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Overdue Patients in a Randomized Trial.Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology : the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association · 2026
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  16. Success of Big Infectious Disease Reimbursement Policy in China.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financing
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Jessica CohenHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and J-PAL, Building 1, Room 1209, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Indrani SaranHarvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Building 1, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Despite substantial public and private costs of non-adherence to infectious disease treatments, patients often do not finish their medication. We explore adherence to medication for malaria, a major cause of morbidity and health system costs in Africa. We conducted a randomized trial in Uganda testing specialized packaging and messaging, designed to increase antimalarial adherence. We find that stickers with short, targeted messages on the packaging increase adherence by 9% and reduce untaken pills by 29%. However, the currently used method of boosting adherence through costly, specialized packaging with pictorial instructions had no significant impacts relative to the standard control package. We develop a theoretical framework of the adherence decision, highlighting the role of symptoms, beliefs about being cured, and beliefs about drug effectiveness to help interpret our results. Patients whose symptoms resolve sooner are substantially less likely to adhere, and the sticker interventions have the strongest impact among these patients.

Indexed as

AdherenceHealth behaviorInfectious diseasesMalariaPatient beliefs

Identifiers

PMID30177864
PMCPMC6088513

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.