"Increasing take-up of preventative health behaviours to mitigate the rise of non-communicable diseases in lower- and middle- income countries: a comp

低收入和中等收入国家面临着日益严重和不成比例的非传染性疾病负担非传染性疾病发病率上升所造成的社会经济代价是巨大的，而且很可能不成比例地由穷人承担。虽然非传染性疾病发病率的决定因素很复杂，但一些主要风险因素是行为。通过预防性行动减少这些行为风险将为贫困家庭和政府带来高回报。我的建议的中心研究问题是如何最好地诱导预防行为：通过直接针对行为的干预，或通过解决贫困问题的干预，这一因素被充分证明是许多不健康习惯的间接原因。有证据表明，行为改变干预措施可以在低能力环境中提供可扩展的低成本解决方案。然而，贫穷与采取预防行为之间也存在着密切的关系。一些证据表明，减轻贫困可以间接解决不健康行为，从而改善健康结果。在我的博士研究中，我试图评估减少不健康饮食的干预措施：这是一种与一系列疾病（糖尿病、心血管疾病）密切相关的行为风险因素，在中低收入国家具有很高的负担。在论文的第一章中，我建议扩展消费选择模型，以表征预防性健康决策，并在实验室现场实验中测试模型的参数。我将测试是否1)实验诱导的贫困变化，2)旨在克服行为障碍的干预措施，或3)1和2的结合可以改善健康行为的采用。为了给实验提供信息，在我的第二章中，我建议对用于促进中低收入国家预防性健康习惯的干预措施进行系统回顾和荟萃分析。在第三章中，我将试图确定归因于行为特征的健康结果的跨国差异。

Lower- and middle- income countries (LMICs) face a growing and disproportionate burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).1 The socio-economic costs of growing NCD rates are substantial and are likely to be borne disproportionately by the poor. While determinants of the rates of NCDs are complex, some of the major risk factors are behaviours. Reducing these behavioural risks through preventative actions would have high returns both for poor households and for governments. The central research question of my proposal is how best to induce preventative behaviours: through interventions targeting the behaviours directly, or through interventions which address poverty - a factor well-documented as the indirect cause of many unhealthy habits. Evidence suggests behaviour change interventions could offer scalable, low-cost solutions in low-capacity settings. However, there is also a strong relationship between poverty and take-up of preventative behaviours. Some evidence suggests alleviating poverty could indirectly address unhealthy behaviours, thus improving health outcomes. In my doctoral research, I seek to evaluate interventions to reduce unhealthy diet: a behavioural risk factor strongly associated with a range of diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular) with a high burden in LMICs. In the first chapter of my thesis, I propose to extend the model of consumption choice to characterise decisions on preventative health and to test the model's parameters in a lab-in-the-field experiment. I will test whether 1) experimentally induced variation in poverty, 2) an intervention designed to overcome a behavioural barrier, or 3) a combination of 1 and 2 improves the take up of healthy behaviours. To inform the experiment, in my second chapter I propose to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions used to promote preventative health habits in LMICs. In the third chapter, I will seek to causally determine the cross-country variation in health outcomes attributable to behavioural characteristics.