Understanding Adoption for Clean Cookstoves: A Demand Study

Understanding Adoption of Clean Cookstoves

The aim of the Adoption study is to determine how best to encourage people to adopt clean cookstoves in order to diminish the global health risk of household air pollution. The study harnesses an existing cohort in Ghana to study factors that increase the adoption of clean cookstoves, and to test strategies to promote adoption and continued use. Limited past research has shown that the demand for clean cookstoves is low, and that households continue to use traditional hearths even when they have clean cookstoves. This behavior threatens to undermine clean cookstove intervention programs, such as those promoted by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. The proposed study aims to ascertain the demand curve for liquified petroleum gas (LPG) in the Kintampo North Municipality and South district.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Consumer Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Distance allocation; Behavioral: LPG subsidy

Detailed Description

The study will assess if demand for LPG in rural settings in Ghana is price elastic - and by how much - by providing different levels of LPG price subsidies. It will also ascertain if demand is influenced by distance by allocating participants to varying distances to points of LPG supply. Finally, it will assess factors that could affect the demand for LPG such as availability and price of other fuels for cooking, and income levels.

In particular the objectives of the study are:

1. To determine if demand for LPG is price elastic
2. To determine if demand for LPG is influenced by distance
3. To ascertain what other factors aside the price of LPG, and distance to point of LPG supply, determine the demand for LPG
4. To document the successes and challenges of introducing a subsidy for LPG in rural settings

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 890
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Ghana
  • Kintampo, Ghana
    • Kintampo Medical Research Center
• United States
  • New York
    • New York, New York, United States, 10032
      • Columbia University Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Female
• 18 years of age or older
• Primary cook of the household
• Part of the Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study (GRAPHS) sample or reside in a sample village
• Owns an LPG stove and cylinder (provided by the project in the case of newly recruited households)

Exclusion Criteria

- Temporarily residing in study area.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; All individuals in each arm will have a well-functioning LPG cookstove and gas cylinder. Participants in the control arm will receive no other intervention.
Experimental: No subsidy, distance variation; All individuals in each arm will have a well-functioning LPG cookstove and gas cylinder. This intervention arm will receive an assigned depot where they have to make liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) purchases.	Behavioral: Distance allocation; We will set up fuel supply depots to increase the convenience and lower costs and hassle associated with traveling to an established filling station. The supply depots will mirror a recirculation model of LPG distribution currently being piloted by the National Petroleum Authority of Ghana. Households will be randomly assigned to one of the supply depots in advance or to continue refilling their cylinder at the filling station.
Experimental: Subsidy, no distance variation; All individuals in each arm will have a well-functioning LPG cookstove and gas cylinder. This intervention arm receives a price subsidy on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) purchases.	Behavioral: LPG subsidy; Different subsidy rates, ranging between 0% and 100% (listed below) will be written on cards. Individuals will randomly select a card to display the subsidy rate for each household. The card will be concealed with a scratch-off sticker, with a higher likelihood of drawing a high price (low subsidy) than a low price (high subsidy) given that take up will be higher in the latter group.
Experimental: Subsidy, distance variation; All individuals in each arm will have a well-functioning LPG cookstove and gas cylinder. This intervention arm receives a price subsidy on liquefied petroleum gas) (LPG) purchases an assigned depot where they have to make liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) purchases.	Behavioral: Distance allocation; We will set up fuel supply depots to increase the convenience and lower costs and hassle associated with traveling to an established filling station. The supply depots will mirror a recirculation model of LPG distribution currently being piloted by the National Petroleum Authority of Ghana. Households will be randomly assigned to one of the supply depots in advance or to continue refilling their cylinder at the filling station.; Behavioral: LPG subsidy; Different subsidy rates, ranging between 0% and 100% (listed below) will be written on cards. Individuals will randomly select a card to display the subsidy rate for each household. The card will be concealed with a scratch-off sticker, with a higher likelihood of drawing a high price (low subsidy) than a low price (high subsidy) given that take up will be higher in the latter group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Demand for LPG	The primary outcome will be measured by the number of LPG cylinder purchases and/or refills by the study participant.	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Columbia University
• Collaborators: University of California, Santa Barbara; Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Darby Jack, PhD, Columbia University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 15, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 11, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): November 11, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 29, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 29, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): July 2, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): February 28, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 26, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: AAAS9921

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES

IPD Plan Description

De-identified participant data will be shared between the study teams at the Kintampo Health Research Center, Columbia University and University of California, Santa Barbara. This data will not include medical or clinical information.

We plan to create a public use de-identified dataset that will be made available via the Ghana Open Data Initiative or a similar repository.

• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No