Compensation boosts uptake

Compensation can improve the uptake of key HIV prevention services in sub-Saharan Africa, results from two randomised studies show. Aidsmap reports that one of the studies, conducted in Kenya among 900 uncircumcised men ages 21 to 39, compared the effects of offering a food voucher worth $US 12.50, entry in a lottery to win prizes of greater worth, or a food voucher worth $0.060 (the control group) to compensate for the cost of getting circumcised. Men who received food vouchers were seven times more likely to become circumcised compared to those in the control group; the lottery entry had no effect. The effect of the food vouchers was modest (8 percent of men who received them became circumcised) and was strongest among men who were already considering circumcision (Aidsmap, 22 July 2015).