Phased Treatment Enablement Protocol
RCTClinical Trial
In digital field experiments, high initial user drop-off immediately following app download can pollute randomized treatment groups with inactive participants.
Picture this
Requiring participants to complete a mandatory multi-week baseline trial period before enabling experimental features ensures that only active, compliant users enter the randomized treatment evaluation pool.
What the evidence says
The phased enablement protocol effectively isolated non-complying recruits without introducing observable baseline trait imbalances (p > 0.10 across balance tests on gender, age, income, and remittance history).
- Who was studied
- N = 8,248 enrolled participants filtered down to N = 4,458 retained migrant respondents across 30 follow-up weeks.
- How
- 4-week pre-treatment qualification phase requiring response to at least 2 out of 4 weekly surveys prior to randomization, followed by staggered treatment feature rollout in weeks 6, 7, 8, or 9.
What to do
Enforce a multi-week active user screening period prior to feature rollout in digital RCTs to prevent differential attrition from skewing experimental results.
From the source
"By week 4, those who had complied with the participation requirements were considered retained while the others were dropped from the study. ... Those assigned to the treatment group were randomly selected to receive the intervention starting week 6/7/8/9."
A Field Experiment among Filipino Migrant Workers in the UAE.pdf