Kämpfen, F., OtextquoterightDonnell, O., Herl, C.R. and Gómez-Olivé, X. (2026). Is Hypertension Screening Effective in a Low-Resource Setting?: A Multidimensional Regression Discontinuity Design Economic Development and Cultural Change, 74(4):1437--1468.
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Affiliated authors
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Publication year2026
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JournalEconomic Development and Cultural Change
Noncommunicable diseases impede development, yet evidence on screening in low-resource settings is scarce. We evaluate hypertension screening in rural South Africa using a multidimensional regression discontinuity: a survey measures blood pressure (BP) and refers individuals exceeding either of two thresholds. Overall, referral modestly raises treatment uptake but shows no average BP effect after 4 years. We use BP variation with time of day and temperature to identify screens that are less likely to produce false positives. For these, referrals lower systolic BP by 5 mm Hg and uncontrolled BP by 22 percentage points. Limiting false positives may increase referral impact and program cost-effectiveness.