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The utility of health at different stages in life: A quantitative approach

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  • Busschbach, Jan J. V.
  • Hessing, Dick J.
  • De Charro, Frank Th.

Abstract

Thirty students and thirty-five elderly people compared the quality of life of imaginary patients of different ages suffering from end-stage renal disease. By manipulating the time the imaginary patients had to be on a transplantation waiting list, the utility of health at different periods of life could be compared. Except for the very young, respondents found health in the early periods of life to be twice as important as in the last decade of life. Health at age 35 had an utility somewhere between these two extremes. The responses of the elderly people showed remarkable resemblance to the students' responses, suggesting that the results reflect a general ethical standard. The values found were tested by means of a factorial design and found to fulfill the qualifications of an interval scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Busschbach, Jan J. V. & Hessing, Dick J. & De Charro, Frank Th., 1993. "The utility of health at different stages in life: A quantitative approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 153-158, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:37:y:1993:i:2:p:153-158
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    8. Julie Ratcliffe, 2000. "Public preferences for the allocation of donor liver grafts for transplantation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(2), pages 137-148, March.
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    11. Rebecca Shaw & Paul Dolan & Aki Tsuchiya & Alan Williams & Peter Smith & Roger Burrows, 2001. "Development of a questionnaire to elicit public preferences regarding health inequalities," Working Papers 040cheop, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
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    13. Ann M. Holmes, 1997. "A Method to Elicit Utilities for Interpersonal Comparisons," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 17(1), pages 10-20, February.
    14. Aki Tsuchiya & Richard Edlin & Paul Dolan, 2009. "Measuring the societal value of lifetime health," Working Papers 2009010, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised May 2009.
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    17. Mæstad, Ottar & Norheim, Ole Frithjof, 2009. "Eliciting people's preferences for the distribution of health: A procedure for a more precise estimation of distributional weights," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 570-577, May.
    18. Karen Gerard & Katharine Johnston & Jackie Brown, 1999. "The role of a pre‐scored multi‐attribute health classification measure in validating condition‐specific health state descriptions," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(8), pages 685-699, December.
    19. Eva Rodríguez & José Luis Pinto, 2000. "The social value of health programmes: is age a relevant factor?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(7), pages 611-621, October.
    20. Chris Dockins & Robin R. Jenkins & Nicole Owens & Nathalie B. Simon & Lanelle Bembenek Wiggins, 2002. "Valuation of Childhood Risk Reduction: The Importance of Age, Risk Preferences, and Perspective," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(2), pages 335-346, April.
    21. Brouwer, Werner B.F. & van Exel, N. Job A., 2005. "Expectations regarding length and health related quality of life: Some empirical findings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 1083-1094, September.
    22. Clazien Bouwmans & Annemarie Kolk & Mark Oppe & Saskia Schawo & Elly Stolk & Michel Agthoven & Jan Buitelaar & LeonaHakkaart Roijen, 2014. "Validity and responsiveness of the EQ-5D and the KIDSCREEN-10 in children with ADHD," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(9), pages 967-977, December.
    23. Adele Diederich & Jeannette Winkelhage & Norman Wirsik, 2011. "Age as a Criterion for Setting Priorities in Health Care? A Survey of the German Public View," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(8), pages 1-10, August.
    24. Richardson, Jeff & McKie, John, 2005. "Empiricism, ethics and orthodox economic theory: what is the appropriate basis for decision-making in the health sector?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 265-275, January.

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