ArticleJournal of primary care & community health
Healthcare Utilization Unchanged in the Control Arm of a Randomized Clinical Trial.
Article in Journal of primary care & community health. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Comment on "Effect of Modular Training on Self-Management, Disease, and Treatment Adaptation in Individuals With Hypertension: A Randomized Controlled Trial".Journal of clinical hypertension (Greenwich, Conn.) · 2026Article
- Educational video modules for alcohol use disorder: A scalable tool to bridge the treatment gap in hepatology.World journal of hepatology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn low-income settings, clinical trial participation may influence participant behavior, including among control groups. Increased access to care and heightened health awareness during trial enrollment could lead to altered behaviors, a phenomenon known as the Hawthorne effect, which may obscure true intervention impacts; however, this effect remains poorly studied in low-income environments.
aimTo conduct a secondary exploratory analysis of healthcare utilization among control participants of a randomized clinical trial (RCT).
methodsWe retrospectively analyzed electronic medical records from the control arm (n = 26) of an RCT involving low-income Hispanic adults with type 2 diabetes receiving care at a community clinic. Before randomization to a 12-month diabetes education intervention or usual care (control), participants underwent on-site measurements of HbA1c, blood pressure, and weight. Healthcare utilization among control participants was compared during the year before and throughout the study, including all types of exposures: provider visits and other services (eg, orders).
resultsTotal healthcare utilization was similar between the pre-period (11.9 exposures/year) and the study-period (11.4 exposures/year;
conclusionsThis exploratory study found no evidence of a Hawthorne effect on healthcare utilization among control participants. While this may suggest consistent healthcare behaviors, it may also highlight an important public health concern: individuals in low-income settings may lack the resources to translate increased awareness into health-related action. Larger studies are needed to further elucidate behavioral patterns in low-income populations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.