What Drives Poor Care for Child Diarrhea: A Standardized Patient Experiment

Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death for children around the world, although nearly all of these deaths could be prevented with an inexpensive and simple treatment: oral rehydration salts (ORS). Many children with diarrhea do not receive ORS when they seek treatment and this study uses a field experiment to examine why this occurs. We will use anonymous standardized patients combined with a randomized ORS supply intervention to isolate the causal effect of several potential reasons for why children do not receive ORS when they seek care: 1) caretakers prefer ORS alternatives, 2) providers have a financial incentives to prescribe ORS alternatives, and 3) ORS is often out of stock.

Inclusion Criteria: * Eligible providers will be private providers over 18 years old in our sampled villages that treat at least one case of child diarrhea per week Exclusion Criteria: * Providers in villages where there are no other providers will be excluded for confidentiality concerns