IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/medema/v18y1998i2p141-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Preferences for Prevention versus Cure: What if an Ounce of Prevention is Worth Only an Ounce of Cure?

Author

Listed:
  • Peter A. Ubel
  • Mark D. Spranca
  • Michael L. Dekay
  • John C. Hershey
  • David A. Asch

Abstract

Background. The belief that small preventive efforts bring large benefits may explain why many people say they value prevention above all other types of health care. However, it often takes a great deal of preventive medicine to prevent a bad outcome. This study explores whether people value prevention or cure more when each brings the same magnitude of benefit and examines whether preferences for prevention or cure vary according to the severity of the disability of the patients who can receive the preventive or curative intervention. Methods. 289 prospective jurors were presented with a policy dilemma involving how best to allocate funds to benefit people with varying levels of disability. Each project was said to influence the functional ability of 100 nursing home residents, either by improving their level of function or by preventing their level of function from declining. Results. When given a choice between preventive and curative interventions, more subjects preferred the preventive intervention (37% vs 21%, p = 0.002). However, when the strength of people's preferences was taken into account, the preference for preventive interventions was not statistically significant (p = 0.135). With both preventive and curative interventions, the subjects preferred helping patients with more severe disabilities (p

Suggested Citation

  • Peter A. Ubel & Mark D. Spranca & Michael L. Dekay & John C. Hershey & David A. Asch, 1998. "Public Preferences for Prevention versus Cure: What if an Ounce of Prevention is Worth Only an Ounce of Cure?," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 18(2), pages 141-148.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:18:y:1998:i:2:p:141-148
    DOI: 10.1177/0272989X9801800202
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X9801800202
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0272989X9801800202?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Coast, Joanna, 2009. "Maximisation in extra-welfarism: A critique of the current position in health economics," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 786-792, September.
    2. Phaedra S. Corso & Stephen B. Thacker & Jeffrey P. Koplan, 2002. "The Value of Prevention: Experiences of a Public Health Agency," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 22(1_suppl), pages 11-16, September.
    3. Paul Dolan & Rebecca Shaw & Aki Tsuchiya & Alan Williams, 2005. "QALY maximisation and people's preferences: a methodological review of the literature," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(2), pages 197-208, February.
    4. Pinkerton, Steven D. & Johnson-Masotti, Ana P. & Derse, Arthur & Layde, Peter M., 2002. "Ethical issues in cost-effectiveness analysis," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 71-83, February.
    5. Ikenwilo, Divine, 2013. "A difference-in-differences analysis of the effect of free dental check-ups in Scotland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 10-18.
    6. Odejar, Maria & Baker, Rachel & Ryan, Mandy & Donalson, Cam & Bateman, Ian J. & Jones-Lee, M & Lancsar, Emily & Mason, Helen & Pinto Paredes, JL & Robinson, A & Shackley, P & Smith, R & Sugdem, R & Wi, 2010. "Weighting and valuing quality-adjusted life-years using stated preference methods: preliminary results from the Social Value of a QALY Project," MPRA Paper 108869, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Phaedra S. Corso & James K. Hammitt & John D. Graham & Richard C. Dicker & Sue J. Goldie, 2002. "Assessing Preferences for Prevention versus Treatment Using Willingness to Pay," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 22(1_suppl), pages 92-101, September.
    8. Richardson, Jeff & McKie, John, 2007. "Economic evaluation of services for a National Health Scheme: The case for a fairness-based framework," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 785-799, July.
    9. Jeff Richardson & John McKie & Stuart Peacock & Angelo Iezzi, 2011. "Severity as an independent determinant of the social value of a health service," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 12(2), pages 163-174, April.
    10. Abellán Perpiñán, José Mª & Sánchez Martínez,Fernando I. & Martínez Pérez, Jorge E., 2007. "La medición del bienestar social relacionado con la salud/The Measurement of the Health Related Social Welfare," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 25, pages 927-950, Diciembre.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:18:y:1998:i:2:p:141-148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.