Experience-Based Values: A Framework for Classifying Different Types of Experience in Health Valuation Research

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Preference Elicitation
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Debate exists on eliciting health values from patients versus the general public.
• Previous research often overlooks the full spectrum of health-related experiences in valuation.
• Experience encompasses personal, vicarious, and informational knowledge of health states.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance understanding of experience-based (EB) values in health preference research.
• To propose a framework for separating experience from other valuation factors.
• To analyze how experience is addressed in existing health valuation studies.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of 22 papers, extracting 49 valuation exercises.
• Classification of exercises based on a proposed framework including elements like health state, reference person, time frame, raters, and experience.
• Analysis of how different types of experience (personal, vicarious) are incorporated.

Main Results:

• The role of experience in health valuation is often neglected.
• When considered, experience is typically limited to present personal experience linked to self-reported health.
• Existing value sets inadequately capture the nuances of health-related experiences.

Conclusions:

• Current health valuation methods frequently disregard the multifaceted nature of experience.
• A more comprehensive approach is needed to integrate diverse health experiences into value elicitation.
• Future research should develop and apply frameworks that fully incorporate experience-based values.