Effect of cash incentives on tetanus toxoid vaccination among rural Nigerian women: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Tetanus toxoid vaccination is freely available for most women in developing countries, yet maternal and neonatal tetanus are still prevalent in 13 countries, 9 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. We evaluated whether providing cash incentives increases the uptake of tetanus toxoid vaccination among women of childbearing age in rural northern Nigeria. We randomized amounts of cash incentives to women in three groups: 5 Nigerian naira (C5), 300 naira (C300), and 800 naira (C800) (150 naira = 1 U.S. dollar). Overall, of 2,482 women from 80 villages, 1,803 (72.6%) women successfully received the vaccination (419 of 765 [54.8%] women in C5, 643 of 850 [75.7%] women in C300, and 741 of 867 [85.5%] women in C800). Women in C300 and C800 were significantly more likely to receive the vaccine than women in C5. We further found that transportation costs are one of the significant barriers that prevent women from receiving vaccination at clinics, and that cash incentives compensate for transportation costs unless such costs are large.

Keywords

• cash incentives
• tetanus toxoid vaccine
• transportation
• northern nigeria