Collaborative Research: Unintended Consequences of Behavior Change: An Examination of the Impacts on Child Health of Behavior Change in Response to Arsenic Mitigation in Bangladesh

合作研究：行为改变的意外后果：孟加拉国砷减排措施的行为改变对儿童健康的影响研究

• 批准号: 1227011
• 负责人: Erica Field
• 金额: $ 17.52万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1227011&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Unintended; Consequences; Behavior

Policy recommendations often have unintended consequences. This study aims to investigate one such unintended consequence: persistent negative child health impacts of a massive shift in behavior that occurred in Bangladesh around 1999 as millions of households moved away from the use of convenient shallow tube- wells as a source of household drinking water to less convenient deep tube-wells. The shift was in response to concerns that arsenic contamination in shallow tube-wells would increase health risks. However, the associated health risks for young children of switching away from backyard water sources appear to have been sharply underestimated according to preliminary findings by the investigators, which point towards substantial increases in child deaths in households that switch water source.The empirical contribution of this study aims is to disentangle the impact of the behavioral shift from other socioeconomic factors that affect health. The researchers note that at the very local level there is quasi-random variation in arsenic contamination - with some households within the village contaminated and others, very close by, having uncontaminated wells. This analysis can therefore compare child mortality for households within the same village who do or do not have arsenic contamination in their water both before and after 1999, when the behavioral switch took place, and can thus identify the existence of unintended consequences. The work will contribute to determining the appropriate policy response to arsenic contamination across the world, and will develop methods that can be used to identify unintended consequences of multiple policy recommendations.

政策建议通常会带来意想不到的后果。这项研究旨在调查一个这样的意外后果：孟加拉国左右发生的行为发生巨大转变的持续负面负面影响，因为数百万户家庭摆脱了便利的浅水管韦尔斯的使用，作为家庭饮用水的来源，将其作为较不方便的深层管孔的来源。转变是为了回应担心浅管孔中的砷污染会增加健康风险。然而，根据研究人员的初步发现，从后院水源转移的幼儿的相关健康风险似乎已被大幅低估，这指出了转换水源的儿童死亡的大幅增加。这项研究的经验贡献是从该研究的影响中脱离了与其他社会经济因素的行为的影响。研究人员指出，在本地一级，砷污染的准随机变化存在 - 村内的一些家庭受到污染，而另一些家庭非常接近，但没有污染的井。因此，该分析可以比较在1999年和之后发生行为转变之前和之后的同一村庄内的家庭中的儿童死亡率，因此可以识别出意外后果的存在。 这项工作将有助于确定全世界对砷污染的适当政策响应，并将开发可用于确定多个政策建议的意外后果的方法。