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Table 5 Quality assessment of effect estimates of financial incentives on coverage of child health care use

From: Financial incentives and coverage of child health interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Intervention

No. of studies

Design

Limitations

Consistency

Generalizability to population of interest

Conditionalities related to outcome (no. of studies)

Overall quality of evidence

Mean difference (95% CI)

Preventive health care use

Unconditional cash transfer

1

Cluster RCT

Only one study

-

Ecuador

Preventive health visits, but conditionality was not implemented (1)

Low

0.01 (-0.10; 0.12)

Conditional cash transfer

5

Cluster RCT/Cohort/ Longitudinal panel/Cross-sectional

Variability in study design, reporting periods and only one peer-reviewed study

Inconsistent

Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru

Preventive health visits (4)

Low

0.14 (-0.00; 0.29)

Unconditional microcredit

1

Cross-sectional

Only one study

-

Bangladesh

-

Low

0.04 (0.02; 0.06)

Conditional voucher

1

Cluster RCT

Only one study and shorter reporting period

-

Honduras

Preventive health visits (1)

Low

0.16 (0.13; 0.18)

Curative health care use

Conditional cash transfer

1

Cross-sectional

Only one study

-

Peru

Preventive health visits (1)

Low

0.22 (0.12; 0.32)

Unconditional microcredit

2

Cross-sectional

Reverse causality possible in all studies

Consistent

Bangladesh and Pakistan

-

Low

0.10 (0.07; 0.13)

User fee removal

2

Cross-sectional /Before and after design using administrative data

Individual-level data in one study and clinic-level data in the other, neither experimental

Consistent, both studies show benefit

Rwanda, Sudan

-

Low

0.33 (0.24; 0.43)

Health care use

Conditional cash transfer

1

Longitudinal panel

Only one study

-

Brazil

Preventive health visits (1)

Low

0.04 (-0.02; 0.10)

Preventive health care visits

Conditional cash transfer

1

Cohort

Only one study

-

Jamaica

Preventive health visits (1)

Low

0.38 (0.15; 0.62)

User fee removal

1

Before and after design using administrative data

Only one study

-

South Africa

-

Low

-0.03 (-0.18; 0.13)

Curative health care visits

User fee removal

2

Before and after design using administrative data

No control group, one study limits the outcome to visits due to malaria only

Consistent, both studies show benefit

Niger and Kenya

-

Low

0.99 (0.71; 1.27)

New health care visits

User fee removal

1

Before and after design using administrative data

Only one study

-

Uganda

-

Low

0.27 (0.18; 0.37)

Follow-up health care visits

User fee removal

1

Before and after design using administrative data

Only one study

-

Uganda

-

Low

0.81 (0.73; 0.90)

Health care visits

Conditional cash transfer

1

Cluster RCT

Only one study

-

Mexico

Preventive health visits (1)

Low

-0.01 (-0.02; -0.00)

User fee removal

1

Before and after design using administrative data

Clinic-level data

-

Uganda

-

Low

0.20 (0.10; 0.29)