Using the person trade-off approach to examine differences between individual and social values

Area of Science:

• Health economics
• Decision analysis
• Social welfare

Background:

• Health state valuations using standard gamble and time trade-off methods capture individual values.
• These individual values may not accurately reflect social preferences, which can be influenced by factors like pre-treatment health severity.
• The person trade-off (PTO) method is proposed to account for these additional factors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences between individual and social preferences for health treatments using the PTO method.
• To determine if individuals prioritize their own treatment preferences differently than when considering treatment for others.
• To explore the role of health gain versus pre-treatment severity in social value judgments.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the person trade-off (PTO) method to elicit health state valuations.
• Compared individual preferences for self-treatment with social preferences for others' treatment.
• Collected qualitative data to understand determinants of social value.

Main Results:

• Found significant differences between individual preferences for self-treatment and social preferences for others' treatment.
• Qualitative data indicated that health gain is a crucial factor in determining social value.
• This finding contrasts with studies emphasizing pre-treatment severity as a primary social value determinant.

Conclusions:

• Individual preferences for health treatments diverge from societal preferences.
• Health gain emerges as a significant factor in social valuation of health states.
• Further research is needed to reconcile differing findings on the influence of health gain versus pre-treatment severity in social preferences.