Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41779842›Full record

Trial reportScience advances2026

Digital support systems to improve child development in Peru: A cluster-randomized controlled open-label trial.

Günther Fink, Dana Charles McCoy, Lena Jäggi, Kristen Hinckley, Andreana Castellanos, Maria Luisa Huaylinos Bustamante, Leonel Aguilar, Maria Catalina Gastiaburu Cabello, Milagros Alvarado, Sarah Farnsworth Hatch and 5 more

Abstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–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

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
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

15 authors.

Günther FinkSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-7525-3668
Dana Charles McCoyHarvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-0896-1813
Lena JäggiSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0003-4695-4478
Kristen HinckleySwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-7161-3769
Andreana CastellanosAfinidata, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
Maria Luisa Huaylinos BustamanteUniversidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.ORCID 0009-0005-7257-9247
Leonel AguilarInstitute for Computing Platforms, Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-6864-4492
Maria Catalina Gastiaburu CabelloUniversidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.ORCID 0009-0008-6672-7516
Milagros AlvaradoSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland.ORCID 0009-0008-5499-0376
Sarah Farnsworth HatchHarvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA.ORCID 0009-0005-9642-280X
Marta DormalHarvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Jorge CuartasDepartment of Applied Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-0451-3298
Ce ZhangInstitute for Computing Platforms, Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-8105-7505
Stella Hartinger PeñaSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0003-3523-1725
Daniel MäusezahlSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Allschwil, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-5639-5337

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Digital technologies have the potential to transform early childhood development (ECD) interventions by delivering personalized support at scale. We conducted a cluster-randomized controlled trial in rural Peru to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an artificial intelligence-supported digital parenting chatbot as well as traditional home visits as interventions to improve child development. Among 2461 caregiver-child dyads, both the digital and home-visiting interventions improved child development outcomes at 2.5 years of age, with standardized effect sizes of 0.11 and 0.17, respectively. At

Indexed as

Child DevelopmentChild, PreschoolCost-Benefit AnalysisFemaleHumansMalePeru

Identifiers

PMID41779842
PMCPMC12959410

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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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.