Cervical cancer prevention through financial interventions: An empirical study

Cervical cancer prevention through financial interventions: An empirical study Abstract: Background: The risk of cervical cancer is very high due to poor awareness levels among the common masses in Low and middle income countries (LMIC) of the world. Literatures shows low rates of acceptance of cervical cancer screening programs among women in these regions are one of the contributing factors to the high incidence rate in these countries. This study is an attempt to assess the efficacy of monetary incentives on women’s participation in a cervical cancer screening program. Methods: To evaluate the effectiveness of financial incentives as an intervention in improving women’s participation in a cancer screening program, a randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in the Kamrup district of Assam, India. A total of 196 women participated in the awareness campaign, and the participants were randomly categorized using STATA 15 software into three random groups namely a high-incentivized group, a low-incentivized group, and the controlled group. Result: The likelihood of women’s participation in a cancer screening program is 76.76 times more for the high incentivized group compared to the control group. The results also indicate the odds in favour of women’s participation in a cervical cancer screening program is 4.33 times more for the high-incentivized group compared to the low-incentivized group. Thus, the results of the study reveal that higher financial incentives have higher rates of success in encouraging women to participate in a cancer screening program. Conclusion: The results of the experiment reveal a positive impact of financial incentives as a way of encouraging women to participate in a cervical cancer screening program. The finding of the present study also confirms the finding of the earlier experimental study conducted by Choudhury and Borah (2022). Policy summary statement: Intervention in the form of financial incentives can go a long way to mitigate the major problem of low participation of women in cervical cancer screening programs in developing countries like India.