Transforming Households With Refraction and Innovative Financial Technology (THRIFT)

A Randomised Controlled Trial on the Impact of Free Reading Glasses to Support Use of Smartphone Banking in Bangladesh Among Government Old Age Allowance and Widow Allowance Beneficiaries

The aim of the proposed Randomised Clinical Trial (RCT) is to assess the impact of presbyopia correction and basic digital financial training on greater adoption and use of digital financial services (primary outcome) and other welfare impacts (secondary outcomes)) for safety-net beneficiaries in Bagladesh. Trial participants will be Old Age Allowance (OAA) and Widows Allowance (WA) beneficiaries who regularly receive payments as part of a government safety net program for the very poor.

The primary objective of the THRIFT trial is to assess whether the combined complementary intervention of providing free eyeglasses and basic digital financial services training in the use of mobile phones and the THRIFT app (a module locally developed to capture digital financial transactions) to recipients of government OAA and WA safety-net payments can lead to greater financial inclusion and improved quality of life.

THRIFT's primary outcome is the adoption and effective use of the DFS platform in receiving digital OAA and WA transfers using the mobile banking platform, as measured by the difference between the treatment and control groups.

The secondary outcomes analysed under the THRIFT trial will be:

Total mobile data consumption by the individual Whether use of the application was facilitated by a bKash agent or family member, or independently by the beneficiary Purchase of additional phones by study participant's household Purchase of additional phones by study participant Intra-household resource sharing by the beneficiary (as a percentage of total household consumption) Purchase of glasses other than those issued to the intervention group. Food security (measured using standard module developed by World Food Programme (WFP) Role of study participant in household decision making Subjective well-being of study participants Mobility of study participant Social connectedness of study participant External remittances, recorded on the bKash app and captured in survey Self-reported incidence of theft or fraudulent use of money from the index participant's account.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Presbyopia
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Glasses to correct presbyopia

Detailed Description

Background and Rationale: The proliferation of mobile banking systems across developing countries has provided previously un-banked populations with a convenient method to manage their finances digitally. The Government of Bangladesh launched the Old Age Allowance (OAA) and Widow Allowance (WA) programmes in 1998 to provide a financial safety net to its poor and vulnerable population - elderly under OAA and vulnerable women under WA. More than half of Bangladeshi adults lack access to a formal bank account, with most of the un-banked population belonging to the poorest 40% of households. Mobile money, through applications such as bKash, has become the "innovation" to improve the financial inclusion scenario in Bangladesh, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. The take-up of mobile money is often limited by a lack of technical awareness and trust concerns among the elderly. Lee at al. (2021) have addressed these concerns through an intervention consisting of initial training and subsequent minor assistance in using the bKash mobile banking application, which they randomised over a sample of poor households in rural Bangladesh. They found an increase of 7.5% in rural consumption, a reduction in extreme poverty and a 26% increase in urban to rural remittances among the sample participants using bKash a year after the intervention. Across Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), experimental studies encouraging adoption of mobile money applications have been shown to improve consumption smoothing, savings and access to credit. There is evidence to support the theory that a training module introducing the elderly to mobile banking will help bridge strong information and trust gaps, and encourage greater financial independence. As traditional joint family structures weaken in South Asian societies, greater economic independence among older populations has the potential to improve their functional independence, level of healthcare access, and mental well-being. Evidence suggests that there is a substantial burden of uncorrected presbyopia in Bangladesh. Uncorrected vision problems have been found to negatively affect visual function, which includes smart phone and mobile phone usage among the elderly in multiple LMIC contexts. It has also been found to affect productivity among tea plantation workers performing visually demanding tasks in Assam, India. This can lead to lower engagement with mobile banking platforms, which in turn can limit elderly people's access to their finances. Conversely, correction of presbyopia is associated with significant improvements in work productivity and other economically important outcomes.

The proposed THRIFT trial is the first to examine two important determinants of mobile banking among an elderly and financially vulnerable population in a developing country context: lack of awareness about the use of mobile banking, and uncorrected age-related decline in near vision, presbyopia. This randomised trial will evaluate whether providing study populations with glasses for presbyopia, and a digital financial training module can significantly improve the use of mobile banking for cash transfers, deposits, and withdrawals, compared to controls receiving these interventions only after end line.

Aim: The aim of the proposed RCT trial is to assess the impact of presbyopia correction and basic digital financial training (combined complementary intervention) on greater adoption and use of digital financial services (primary outcome) and other welfare impacts (secondary outcomes) for safety-net beneficiaries in an LMIC.

JPGSPH will gather the beneficiary list of the OAA and WA from the Department of Social Service, Government of Bangladesh.

Consent for Social screening and vision screening is obtained by Community Health workers (CHW) of MOMODa Foundation (MF) and consented participants are assigned the Unique participant Identifier (ID).

All the relevant documents are verified before proceeding to the social screening.

Social screening including numeracy, dexterity and cognitive test (NDC test) is done to confirm eligibility.

Eligible participant list is shared with VisionSpring (VS) team after obtaining consent for vision examinations.

VS CHWs and Programs officers conduct door-to door eye-screening for presbyopia diagnosis and eligible participant list is shared with MF for proceeding with baseline survey. Consent for baseline survey and trial is obtained by MF, followed by randomisation.

Treatment group gets the eyeglasses, mobile phone and basic training on the usage of the mobile phone and mobile banking application.

Control group gets mobile phone and basic instructions to use the mobile phone and prescription for glasses. Eyeglasses to the control group are provided at the end of the study.

VS team conducts 2 follow up visits per participant. First follow-up visit one month after receiving glasses and second visit 5 months after the first follow up visit

• to check the compliance to eyeglasses
• Collect any safety event information MOMODa Foundation team conducts 3 follow-up visits per participant at 3, 6 and 9 months after providing the smartphones and training. MF
• collects any information on safety events
• checks the smartphones provided
• assesses the participants comfort to use the smartphone
• assesses whether smartphone is being used by the participant. MF conducts the endline survey 12 months after the distribution of the smartphones.

Study Setting:

The research will be conducted in Kurigram Sadar and Nageshwari, two sub-districts within the Kurigram district located in northern Bangladesh. These districts are in bKash catchment area for the Department of Social Services safety-net payments. Specifically, the study will take place in nine unions, seven in Kurigram Sadar (Mogolbasa, Belgacha, Ghogadoho, Holokhana, Jatrapur, Panchgachi, and Vogdanga) and two in Nageshwari (Bhitorbond and Hasnabad).

Recruitment: This will begin with the receipt of the list identifying OAA and WA beneficiaries living in Kurigram district from the Department of Social Service, Government of Bangladesh.

Before visiting the beneficiaries' households, the enumerators will make phone calls to schedule appointments with approximately ten beneficiaries per day, aiming to meet their survey target.

MF will conduct a door-to-door social screening survey based on the eligibility criteria. Upon receiving the beneficiaries' consent to participate in the study, the following screening procedures are done.

1. It is important that THRIFT only include those that have incomes at or below the government's eligibility criteria. This will be determined by means of a standardized brief Wealth Index questionnaire "Equity Tool" which is a simplified form generated from the DHS
2. Internet Connection: An internet speed of 13 kbps is found to be optimal to incorporate the data into the social screening survey interface.

3. Numeracy, Dexterity and Cognition (NDC) Test: The study participants who will meet all inclusion criteria up to this point and attended the Social Screening Survey will undergo a basic numeracy and a functional literacy test. This is to assess if they can conduct basic operations using a phone, such as recognising numbers and using the smartphone screen number pad to enter numbers.

   Before conducting the social screening survey and NDC test, beneficiaries will be requested to familiarise themselves with the numbers (English) from 0 to 9 prior to the scheduled household visit.

   During this test, beneficiaries will be requested if they can see the numbers on app and based on the visual demand they will be given +1, +2 or +3 reading glasses starting with +1 for 48-50 age group, +2 for 51-60 age group, and +3 >60 age.

   The score from the app will be used to assess the individual's basic cognitive capacity as well. Cut off value for eligibility in the NDC app is considered 8 or more.

   Presbyopia diagnosis: Door-to-door eye screening examinations will be done to all the identified OAA and WA beneficiaries in the selected district who consent to be screened.

4. An application called "THRIFT app" has been developed to collect transaction information related to mobile banking who use the DFS service via their mobile phones. This app facilitates the gathering and storage of mobile banking transaction data on a server through an internet connection. When the beneficiaries receive a mobile phone from MF, the THRIFT app will be pre-installed on their mobile device.

Baseline Survey: After undergoing social screening, NDC test, and vision screening, the individuals will be selected for the baseline survey.

RANDOMISATION AND PROCEDURES Participants will be randomly assigned to either the Intervention or Control Group using following procedure.

Sequence generation The randomization sequence will be generated by the study statistician at the LVPEI CTU using a pre-written code in Stata. Separate randomisation sequences will be prepared in advance for each of the 12 possible strata.

Allocation concealment mechanism The allocation sequence will be in a password protected location stored in designated folder for THRIFT by JPGSPH and will be accessed by the concealment implementers only.

Implementation The implementation team will receive a list of beneficiaries and their respective group allocation based on the baseline data collected. The group allocation for a participant will be revealed from the list and the participant is enrolled.

Blinding/Masking The trial will be investigator-masked, but CHWs, other fieldwork personnel and the participants will not be masked to Intervention Group assignment.

ANALYSIS Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics will be reported for all participants in the sample, excluding protocol deviations randomised in error where Informed Consent has not been obtained. Baseline characteristics will be summarised by their means and standard deviations, medians and interquartile ranges, or numbers and percentages as appropriate.

An Intention to treat (ITT) approach to analyze most outcomes. This would involve regressing the outcome of concern on the randomised intervention status, outcome level as recorded at baseline or Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA ) estimation (if available), and a vector of baseline control variables.

All analyses will be adjusted for age, gender, and previous phone use. The rates of mobile banking usage, as measured in the primary outcomes, will be compared across groups of participants based on the basis of age, education, household income and other socioeconomic variables.

Standard errors will be clustered at the individual level for this analysis. However, for high-frequency outcome variables (such as application-based financial transaction data) will be aggregated (either monthly or weekly) where errors will be clustered at the household level. Outcome variables that are binary in nature will be analysed using Linear Probability Model method.

Participants will be described with respect to the following characteristics at trial entry:

Age, Sex, Education level, Uncorrected, presenting and corrected distance visual acuity in each eye separately and both eyes together, Ownership of glasses for the correction of distance vision and self-reported regularity of use Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25), Rural residence, Attitudes towards vision correction, Access to local eye care services, history of uptake of eye care services.

Numbers (with percentages) for binary and categorical variables and means (and standard deviations), or medians (with lower and upper quartiles) for continuous variables will be presented; there will be no tests of statistical significance performed nor confidence intervals calculated for differences between groups on any baseline variables (for instance mid-way through trial from Interim Analysis).

Economic Evaluation An economic evaluation of the intervention will be conducted using cost-effectiveness analysis. Data will be collected on the incremental cost of providing eyeglasses to the Intervention Group to calculate the incremental cost per quality-of-life measure, which will help assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention.

No planned interim analysis will be undertaken due to the short duration of the study.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 571
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Nathan G Congdon, MD, MPH; Phone Number: 8929 +44(0)2890978929; Email: n.congdon@qub.ac.uk
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Rohit C Khanna, MPH; Phone Number: 5600 914035225600; Email: rohit@lvpei.org

Study Locations

• Bangladesh
  • Bir Uttom A K Khandakar Road
    • Dhaka, Bir Uttom A K Khandakar Road, Bangladesh, 1213
      • Recruiting
      • James P. Grant School of Public Health BRAC University
      • Contact: Atonu Rabbani, PhD; Phone Number: +880-1730-441787; Email: atonu.rabbani@bracu.ac.bd
      • Contact: Mrittika Barua, PhD; Phone Number: +880-2-48812213; Email: mrittika@bracu.ac.bd

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 50 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age

   • 65-70 years old male OAA beneficiaries
   • 62-70 years old female OAA beneficiaries
   • 48-60 years old WA beneficiaries
2. Receiving digital OAA or WA payments from the Government of Bangladesh
3. Residence Lives in the bKash catchment area, Kurigram

4. Presbyopia

   • Binocular presenting near-vision N6.3 or worse, correctable to N5 or better
   • Require a new pair of glasses
5. Mapped into bottom three asset quintiles according to the equity tool questionnaire
6. Numeracy, dexterity and cognitive ability Score 8 or above on NDC Screening test.
7. Individuals who do not use MFS account by themselves

Exclusion criteria

1. Poor internet connection, less than 13kbps
2. Presence of any cause of near or distance vision impairment that cannot be resolved with presbyopic glasses.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Glasses to correct presbyopia and digital financial training; The intervention is the provision of glasses to correct presbyopia plus digital financial training to use bKash, a popular mobile banking application that is becoming the preferred mode of transferring payments to the bank accounts of OAA and WA beneficiaries in Bangladesh.	Device: Glasses to correct presbyopia; Participants will receive eyeglasses to correct presbyopia, as per the power determined in the eye examination.
No Intervention: Control-No treatment; Mobile phone with preloaded bank transaction tracking app: Participants will be provided a basic mobile phone handset. The bank transaction tracking application that is being developed to measure the primary outcomes for this trial will be installed on these phones before giving them to the participants. A mobile data pack will also be remotely loaded on the mobile phone to facilitate internet access for mobile banking. Eyeglasses: These participants will receive a free pair of eyeglasses at the conclusion of the study to correct refractive errors, unless they have obtained such glasses on their own during the study.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of transactions with the index bank account per unit time.	This will be calculated using THRIFT and bKash app. THRIFT app will capture incoming transaction of two leading DFS bKash and Nagad transactions. It will record the number of bank transactions undertaken through the DFS app, as they will reflect in the Short Message Service (SMS) on the participants' phone. On the other hand, bKash transaction level data will provide both incoming and outgoing transactions.	Once every week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Application was facilitated by a bKash agent or family member, or independent	Whether use of the application was facilitated by a bKash agent or family member, or independent. A binary outcome with either Yes or No	Change from baseline to 12 months
Purchase of additional phones by study participant's household	The number of mobile phones purchased per household is assessed. A binary outcome with either Yes or No	Change from baseline to 12 months
Purchase of additional phones by study participant	The number of mobile phones purchased by the individual is assessed. A binary outcome with either Yes or No	Change from baseline to 12 months
Intra-household resource sharing by the beneficiary	Percentage of resource shared by the beneficiary from total household consumption. Best score is 100 and worst score is 0.	Change from baseline to 12 months
Purchase of glasses	Glasses purchased by the study participant. A binary outcome with either Yes or No.	Change from baseline to 12 months
Food security	Participants perception of the nutrition and quantity of their daily food consumption is measured. This is a continuous index with larger values indicating higher levels of food insecurity.	Up to 12 months
Role of study participant in household decision making autonomy	The onus of decision making for different household activities by the participant is assessed using a survey instrument developed fort the trial. Best score is 100% and worst score is 0%	Change from baseline to 12 months
Subjective well-being of study participants	Participants satisfaction with various aspects of their life such as their health and personal relationships is assessed using the World Health Organisation Quality of Life survey. Best score is 100 and worst score is 0.	Change from baseline to 12 months
Mobility of study participant	Participants comfort in regular physical activities is assessed using Global Physical Activity Questionnaire. Self-reported physical activity.	Change from baseline to 12 months
Social connectedness of study participant	Participants engagement with their family members, friends and neighbors is assessed using Social Networking Index. The best possible score is 12 and the worst possible score is 0.	Change from baseline to 12 months
External remittances, recorded on the bKash app	Participants banking habits; if they have an account with a formal banking institution, their awareness of mobile money transactions and the various methods & constraints in the way of undertaking mobile banking'are assessed with worst score being 0. Higher values indicate frequent remittances.	Once in a month.
Incidence of theft or fraudulent use of money	Self-reported incidents on theft from the index participant's bank account. A binary outcome with either Yes or No	Up to 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Queen's University, Belfast
• Collaborators: Florida International University; L.V. Prasad Eye Institute; BRAC University; VisionSpring; Clearly; MOMODa Foundation; Good Business Labs Foundation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Nathan G Congdon, MD, MPH, Queen's University, Belfast; Principal Investigator: Atonu Rabbani, PhD, BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health; Principal Investigator: Abu S Shonchoy, PhD, Florida International University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Craig CL, Marshall AL, Sjostrom M, Bauman AE, Booth ML, Ainsworth BE, Pratt M, Ekelund U, Yngve A, Sallis JF, Oja P. International physical activity questionnaire: 12-country reliability and validity. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2003 Aug;35(8):1381-95. doi: 10.1249/01.MSS.0000078924.61453.FB.
• Suri T, Jack W. The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science. 2016 Dec 9;354(6317):1288-1292. doi: 10.1126/science.aah5309. Epub 2016 Dec 8.
• Khanam MA, Streatfield PK, Kabir ZN, Qiu C, Cornelius C, Wahlin A. Prevalence and patterns of multimorbidity among elderly people in rural Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study. J Health Popul Nutr. 2011 Aug;29(4):406-14. doi: 10.3329/jhpn.v29i4.8458.
• Lu Q, Congdon N, He X, Murthy GV, Yang A, He W. Quality of life and near vision impairment due to functional presbyopia among rural Chinese adults. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2011 Jun 13;52(7):4118-23. doi: 10.1167/iovs.10-6353.
• Patel I, Munoz B, Burke AG, Kayongoya A, McHiwa W, Schwarzwalder AW, West SK. Impact of presbyopia on quality of life in a rural African setting. Ophthalmology. 2006 May;113(5):728-34. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2006.01.028.
• Rahman FN, Khan HTA, Hossain MJ, Iwuagwu AO. Health and wellbeing of indigenous older adults living in the tea gardens of Bangladesh. PLoS One. 2021 Mar 4;16(3):e0247957. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247957. eCollection 2021.
• Laviers H. The prevalence of presbyopia and the feasibility of community distribution of near spectacles in adults in Zanzibar, East Africa. Community Eye Health. 2007 Dec;20(64):73. No abstract available.
• Wang C, Wang X, Jin L, Tang B, Zhu W, Zhang G, Chen T, McAneney H, Kassalow J, Congdon N. Influence of presbyopia on smartphone usage among Chinese adults: A population study. Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2019 Sep;47(7):909-917. doi: 10.1111/ceo.13559. Epub 2019 Jun 13.
• Mathieson KM, Kronenfeld JJ, Keith VM. Maintaining functional independence in elderly adults: the roles of health status and financial resources in predicting home modifications and use of mobility equipment. Gerontologist. 2002 Feb;42(1):24-31. doi: 10.1093/geront/42.1.24.
• Srivastava S, Purkayastha N, Chaurasia H, Muhammad T. Socioeconomic inequality in psychological distress among older adults in India: a decomposition analysis. BMC Psychiatry. 2021 Apr 7;21(1):179. doi: 10.1186/s12888-021-03192-4. Erratum In: BMC Psychiatry. 2021 Apr 29;21(1):221.
• Muhit M, Minto H, Parvin A, Jadoon MZ, Islam J, Yasmin S, Khandaker G. Prevalence of refractive error, presbyopia, and unmet need of spectacle coverage in a northern district of Bangladesh: Rapid Assessment of Refractive Error study. Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 2018 Apr;25(2):126-132. doi: 10.1080/09286586.2017.1370119. Epub 2017 Oct 4.
• Muhammad N, Alhassan MB, Umar MM. Visual function and vision-related quality of life in presbyopic adult population of Northwestern Nigeria. Niger Med J. 2015 Sep-Oct;56(5):317-22. doi: 10.4103/0300-1652.170379.
• Jack, W., & Suri, T. (2014). Risk Sharing and Transactions Costs: Evidence from Kenya's Mobile Money Revolution. American Economic Review, 104(1), 183-223. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.1.183
• Kidd Man RE, Fenwick EK, Sabanayagam C, Li LJ, Gupta P, Tham YC, Wong TY, Cheng CY, Lamoureux EL. Prevalence, Correlates, and Impact of Uncorrected Presbyopia in a Multiethnic Asian Population. Am J Ophthalmol. 2016 Aug;168:191-200. doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2016.05.019. Epub 2016 May 28.
• Reddy PA, Congdon N, MacKenzie G, Gogate P, Wen Q, Jan C, Clarke M, Kassalow J, Gudwin E, O'Neill C, Jin L, Tang J, Bassett K, Cherwek DH, Ali R. Effect of providing near glasses on productivity among rural Indian tea workers with presbyopia (PROSPER): a randomised trial. Lancet Glob Health. 2018 Sep;6(9):e1019-e1027. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30329-2. Epub 2018 Jul 23.
• Aker, J., & Mbiti, I. (2010). Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa. Journal Of Economic Perspectives, 24(3), 207-232. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.24.3.207
• Kabir, R., T.A.Khan, H., Kabir, M., & Rahman, M. (2013). POPULATION AGEING IN BANGLADESH AND ITS IMPLICATION ON HEALTH CARE. European Scientific Journal, 9(33). Retrieved 15 October 2021, from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/83951388.pdf
• Khan, M., Islam Mondal, M., Hoque, N., & Islam, M. (2014). A Study on Quality of Life of Elderly Population in Bangladesh. American Journal Of Health Research, 2(4), 152. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajhr.20140204.18
• Khatun, M., Mitra, S., & Sarkar, M. (2021). Mobile banking during COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: A novel mechanism to change and accelerate people's financial access. Green Finance, Aims Press, 3(3), 253-267. Retrieved 15 October 2021, from https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/GF.2021013?viewType=HTML
• Msweli, N., & Mawela, T. (2020). Enablers and Barriers for Mobile Commerce and Banking Services Among the Elderly in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review. Lecture Notes In Computer Science, 319-330. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45002-1_27
• Lee, J., Morduch, J., Ravindran, S., Shonchoy, A., & Zaman, H. (2021). Poverty and Migration in the Digital Age: Experimental Evidence on Mobile Banking in Bangladesh. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 13(1), 38-71. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20190067
• Aker, J., Boumnijel, R., McClelland, A., & Tierney, N. (2016). Payment Mechanisms and Antipoverty Programs: Evidence from a Mobile Money Cash Transfer Experiment in Niger. Economic Development And Cultural Change, 65(1), 1-37. https://doi.org/10.1086/687578
• Catia Batista & Pedro C. Vicente, 2018.
• Riley, E. (2018). Mobile money and risk sharing against village shocks. Journal Of Development Economics, 135, 43-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco. 2018.06.015
• Goli, S., Reddy, B., Srinivasan, V., & James, K. (2019). Economic Independence and Social Security among India's Elderly. Economic And Political Weekly, 39. Retrieved 15 October 2021
• Hamiduzzaman, M., de Bellis, A., Abigail, W., & Kalaitzidis, E. (2018). Elderly Women in Rural Bangladesh. South Asia Research, 38(2), 113-129. https://doi.org/10.1177/0262728018767018
• Bangladesh Bureau Of Statistics, Statistics and Informatic Division, Ministry of Planning. Government of Bangladesh. (2015). Age-Sex Composition of Bangladesh Population. http://203.112.218.65:8008/WebTestApplication/userfiles/Image/PopMonographs/Volume-9_Age-Sex.pdf
• Chiroma, M., & Jamda, A. (2017). Impact of Uncorrected Presbyopia on the Quality of Life in Rural Gwagwalada, Nigeria. Journal Of Community Medicine And Primary Health Care, 29(1). 15 October 2021 https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jcmphc/article/view/160834
• World Bank. (2018). Br Project Appraisal Document On A Proposed Credit In The Amount Of Sdr 213.60 Million (Us$ 300.00 Million Equivalent) To The People's Republic Of Bangladesh For A Cash Transfer Modernization Project. World Bank. Retrieved from https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/258451517626830719/pdf/BANGLADESH-PAD-01112018.pdf
• Baur-Yazbeck, S. (2019). A New Generation of Government-to-Person Payments Is Emerging. CGAP. Retrieved 15 October 2021 https://www.cgap.org/blog/new-generation-government-person-payments-emerging
• Shonchoy, A., Rigol, N., Roth, B., Chandra, S., Franco, A., & Hussam, R. (2021). Safety Nets and the Pandemic: The State of Social Benefit Payments during COVID-19. Unpublished manuscript https://poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/The%20State%20of%20Social%20Benefit%20Payments%20in%20Bangladesh%20during%20COVID-19.pdf
• World Bank Group. "PROGRAM BRIEF: Old Age Allowance." worldbank.org, 2019 https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/619861552541446911/pdf/135280-13-3-2019-9-14-4-ProgrambriefonOAAF.pdf
• World Bank. (2017). Chapter 2: The Unbanked. https://globalfindex.worldbank.org/sites/globalfindex/files/chapters/2017%20Findex%20full%20report_chapter2.pdf
• Rajaobelina, L., Brun, I., Line, R. and Cloutier-Bilodeau, C. (2021), Not all elderly are the same: fostering trust through mobile banking service experience, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 85-106. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-05-2020-0288
• Bastian, G., Bianchi, I., Goldstein, M., & Montalvao, J. (2021). Short-Term Impacts of Improved Access to Mobile Savings, with and without Business Training: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania - Working Paper 478. Center For Global Development. Retrieved 15 October 2021 https://www.cgdev.org/publication/short-term-impacts-improved-access-mobile-savings-business-training
• World Bank Group. "PROGRAM BRIEF: Allowances for the Widow, Deserted and Destitute Women" worldbank.org, 2019 https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/994221552537440138/pdf/135277-BRI-PUBLIC-13-3-2019-9-15-58-ProgrambriefonWAF.pdf
• Basic and Clinical Science Course, Section 03: Clinical Optics and Vision Rehabilitation. (n.d.). https://store.aao.org/basic-and-clinical-science-course-section-03-clinical-optics-and-vision-rehabilitation.html
• Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Household Income & Expenditure Survey 2016. Dhaka; 2017.
• Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) |Policy Support and Governance| Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (n.d.) https://www.fao.org/policy-support/tools-and-publications/resources-details/en/c/1236494/
• World Food Program. Food Security and Nutrition Assessment. 2019; https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000108055/download/
• Devlin N, Pickard S, Busschbach J. The Development of the EQ-5D-5L and its Value Sets. 2022 Mar 24. In: Devlin N, Roudijk B, Ludwig K, editors. Value Sets for EQ-5D-5L: A Compendium, Comparative Review & User Guide [Internet]. Cham (CH): Springer; 2022. Chapter 1. Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK589306/
• Sharma G, Chiva-Razavi S, Viriato D, Naujoks C, Patalano F, Bentley S, Findley A, Johnson C, Arbuckle R, Wolffsohn J. Patient-reported outcome measures in presbyopia: a literature review. BMJ Open Ophthalmol. 2020 Jul 12;5(1):e000453. doi: 10.1136/bmjophth-2020-000453. eCollection 2020.
• Gupta N, Wolffsohn JS, Naroo SA, Davies LN, Gibson GA, Shah S. Development of a near activity visual questionnaire to assess accommodating intraocular lenses. Cont Lens Anterior Eye. 2007 May;30(2):134-43. doi: 10.1016/j.clae.2007.01.004. Epub 2007 Feb 26.
• Cohen S, Doyle WJ, Skoner DP, Rabin BS, Gwaltney JM Jr. Social ties and susceptibility to the common cold. JAMA. 1997 Jun 25;277(24):1940-4.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 10, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): April 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 18, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 19, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): August 22, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): February 13, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 10, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Presbyopia; Digital transactions and vision
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Eye Diseases; Refractive Errors; Presbyopia
• Other Study ID Numbers: MHLS 22_69

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

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

IPD Plan Description

All Individual Participant Data (IPD) will be stored in anonymised format. The IPD that includes personal identifiable information will be deleted when the data collection process is complete and before the initiation of data analysis.

Only de-identified data will be shared with all the researchers for analysis. The primary analysis will be conducted on all outcome data obtained from all enrolled participants as randomised.

• IPD Sharing Time Frame: All deidentified IPD will be available from January 2023 (anticipated Trial start date) to Aug 2024 (inclusive of analysis, report writing and publication).
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Following publication of the primary and secondary outcomes there may be scope to conduct additional analyses on the data collected. In such instances formal requests for data will need to be made in writing to the Chief Investigator, who will discuss this with the Sponsor. The study will comply with the good practice principles for sharing individual participant data from publicly funded clinical trials and data sharing will be undertaken in accordance with the required regulatory requirements.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

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