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) |