Improving Childhood Immunization through Maternal Support: Evidence from a Randomized Intervention in Pakistan
Journal of Development Economics · 2025 · Adeline Delavande、Areeba Shahab、Javed Younas、Basit Zafar
Abstract
We evaluate the effectiveness of randomized interventions aimed at alleviating behavioral barriers—such as maternal stress and psychological strain, limited future-oriented thinking, and information frictions—for early childhood immunization uptake in a sample of Pakistani mothers with infants. A phone-delivered intervention providing light psychological support as well as visualization and planning techniques increases the total number of vaccines received by young children by 0.3, or 7% of the control mean, one year after baseline. We also find that the intervention improves maternal knowledge, attitudes, and perceived returns to vaccination. However, supplementing this intervention with vaccination-related information from influencers does not yield additional benefits in this context.