Quasi‐Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Health Information on Preventive Behaviour in Europe

Abstract

AbstractWe investigate the effect of information on preventive decisions in a quasi‐experimental setting arising from the implementation of local breast cancer screening programmes in Europe. To identify the causal effect of invitation on preventive uptake, we link administrative public data on regional screening policies to individual data from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and exploit regional variation in the availability of screening policies and in age eligibility criteria. We find home invitation increases mammography uptakes by around 24%. Significant effects are found when at least 50% of the population is reached by the invitation letter. The stock of health information and the ability to process the information received seem to play a significant role, as the effects of invitation are higher among low educated and lower among cognitively impaired women.