The allocation of scarce medical resources across medical conditions

This study aimed to determine if the criteria participants use to make decisions concerning scarce medical resources differ across medical conditions - from life-saving to life-enhancing surgery (heart transplant, in vitro fertilization treatment and cosmetic surgery). Participants completed three questionnaires requiring them to rank order 16 hypothetical patients in order of priority for each medical condition. Demographic information about the hypothetical patients varied on four dimensions: age, annual income, smoking behaviour and whether or not the patient had children. There were significant main effects of age, smoking behaviour and income across all three medical conditions, with young people, non-smokers and those on a low income being given the highest priority for each treatment. Whether or not a patient had children influenced allocation decisions only on the IVF and heart transplant cases with very large effect sizes. This study supports previous research in the kidney dialysis and organ transplant areas of the allocation of resources. Most importantly, the results show that such effects are not restricted to life-saving resources but also to life-enhancing resources--IVF and cosmetic surgery.