Credit with Health Education in Benin: A Cluster Randomized Trial Examining Impacts on Knowledge and Behavior

Dean Karlan Department of Economics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Innovations for Poverty Action, New Haven, Connecticut.
M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Bram Thuysbaert Department of Economics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Innovations for Poverty Action, New Haven, Connecticut.

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Bobbi Gray Freedom from Hunger, Davis, California.

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We evaluate whether health education integrated into microcredit lending groups reduces health risks by improving health knowledge and self-reported behaviors among urban and rural borrowers in eastern Benin. In 2007, we randomly assigned 138 villages in the Plateau region of Benin to one of four variations of a group liability credit product, varying lending groups' gender composition and/or inclusion of health education using a 2 × 2 design. Women in villages receiving health education, regardless of gender composition of the groups, showed improved knowledge of malaria and of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), but not of childhood illness danger signs. No significant changes in health behavior were observed except an increase in HIV/AIDS prevention behavior, a result predominantly driven by an increase in respondents' self-reported ability to procure a condom, likely an indicator of increased perceived access rather than improved preventative behavior. Women in villages assigned to mixed-gender groups had significantly lower levels of social capital, compared with villages assigned to female-only groups. This suggests there may be an important trade-off to consider for interventions seeking improved health outcomes and social capital through provision of services to mixed-gender groups. Although bundling health education with microcredit can expand health education coverage and lower service-delivery costs, the approach may not be sufficient to improve health behaviors.

Author Notes

* Address correspondence to Dean Karlan, Yale University, 27 Hillhouse Avenue, 2nd Floor, New Haven, CT 06511. E-mail: dean.karlan@yale.edu

Financial support: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded this study.

Conflict of interest: Karlan and Thuysbaert have no conflicts of interest. Gray is employed by Freedom from Hunger, the nonprofit organization that developed the education materials and trains organizations in using them.

Authors' addresses: Dean Karlan and Bram Thuysbaert, Department of Economics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, E-mails: dean.karlan@yale.edu and bthuysbaert@gmail.com. Bobbi Gray, Research, Evaluation and Monitoring, Freedom from Hunger, Davis, CA, E-mail: bgray@freedomfromhunger.org.

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