Using conjoint analysis to assess women's preferences for miscarriage management

To date, standard gamble, time trade-off, visual analogue and, more recently, willingness to pay, have been most commonly employed in health economics to assess utilities from various health care interventions. This article considers the use of conjoint analysis as an alternative technique to assess utilities. The technique is applied to assess women's preferences for the management of miscarriage. The paper addresses methodological issues in the application of the technique to health care and demonstrates its use in estimating willingness to pay and utilities. It is concluded that conjoint analysis is potentially a very useful tool and that future research should investigate more thoroughly the potential application of the technique in health economics.