Motivators versus messengers: a communications experiment in the Dominican Republic.

A total of 3578 women in Santo Domingo were contacted either by trained motivators or a messenger to urge them to attend a family planning clinic. 3% of the women contacted came to the clinic. There was no significant difference in the number of women who responded to the motivator versus the messenger . Thus the more expensive person-to-person home visit is no more effective in bringing in new birth control acceptors than printed material delivered by messenger. Further the messenger can make many more stops in a given amount of time. Motivators vary in the number of clients they see and in the percent of those clients who came to clinic. One motivator had 5% of her clients who came to clinic while another had 70%. Further controlled studies should specify the conditions if any in which the more expensive case-work approach to family planning motivation is effective.