P3 Ghana Cookstove Study

University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Behavior, Social; Household Air Pollution

Treatments: Behavioral: P3 Bio Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03617952

15-0359

SES 1528811 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Background:

Despite their potential health and social benefits, adoption and use of improved cookstoves has been low throughout much of the world. Explanations for low adoption rates of these technologies include prices that are not affordable for the target populations, limited opportunities for households to learn about cookstoves through peers, and perceptions that these technologies are not appropriate for local cooking needs. The P3 project employs a novel experimental design to explore each of these factors and their interactive effects on cookstove demand, adoption, use and exposure outcomes.

Methods:

The P3 study is being conducted in the Kassena-Nankana Districts of Northern Ghana. Leveraging an earlier improved cookstove study that was conducted in this area, the central design of the P3 biomass stove experiment involves offering stoves at randomly varying prices to peers and non-peers of households that had previously received stoves for free. Using household surveys, electronic stove use monitors, and low-cost, portable monitoring equipment, we measure how prices and peers' experience affect perceptions of stove quality, the decision to purchase a stove, use of improved and traditional stoves over time, and personal exposure to air pollutants from the stoves.

Discussion:

The challenges that public health and development communities have faced in spreading adoption of potentially welfare-enhancing technologies, like improved cookstoves, have highlighted the need for interdisciplinary, multisectoral approaches. The design of the P3 project draws on economic theory, public health practice, engineering, and environmental sciences, to more fully grasp the drivers and barriers to expanding access to and uptake of cleaner stoves. Our partnership between academic institutions, in the US and Ghana, and a local environmental non-governmental organization creates unique opportunities to disseminate and scale up lessons learned.

Enrollment: 300 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 55 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Classified as "rural"
• Uses biofuel as main cooking fuel source
• Has women in household aged 18-55 and at least one child under five

Exclusion criteria

• Clusters that are close to the S1 clusters, creating a set of clusters far enough from the original R group that will create the S2 cluster.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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300 participants in 2 patient groups

S1 (Peer) group

Experimental group

Description:

S1 group households located in 25 clusters that were included in a prior cookstove study: selected households are nearest neighbors (peers) of households who received free stoves in that prior study. This group is used to represent a potentially high peer influence on the adoption of improved cookstoves. The P3 Bio Intervention is implemented in this group.

Treatment:

Behavioral: P3 Bio Intervention

S2 (Non-Peer) Group

Experimental group

Description:

S2 group households are located in 25 clusters randomly selected from the area of the K-N Districts more than 1 km from the S1 clusters. This group will have minimal prior knowledge of the cookstoves through peers. The P3 Bio Intervention is implemented in this group.

Treatment:

Behavioral: P3 Bio Intervention