IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/medema/v28y2008i1p12-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Race and Ethnic Disparities in Valuing Health

Author

Listed:
  • Darrell J. Gaskin

    (Department of African American Studies, University of Maryland at College Park, dgaskin@ aasp.umd.edu)

  • Kevin D. Frick

    (Departments of Health Policy and Management, Economics, Ophthalmology, and International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD)

Abstract

Objective. Patient preferences are often cited as a possible explanation for disparities in treatment. However, no prior studies have examined whether there are racial and ethnic differences in preferences for health states in a general population sample. Methods. Data from 21,362 adult respondents to the 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey were used to study variations in valuations of health states. Respondents' health states were valued based on the self-rated Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the Euro-Qol—5D using the US and UK societal scoring algorithms. Regression analyses determined whether valuations in health states varied by race or Hispanic origin, controlling for socioeconomic status and place of residence. Results. Race and ethnicity were not associated with differences in valuations of health states. However, there were systematic differences in characteristics that were controlled, such as health status, age, poverty status, and region of the country. Blacks and Hispanics had slightly higher VAS scores than whites. The negative influence of pain/ discomfort on the VAS score was greater for blacks and Hispanics. Conclusions. Racial and ethnic differences in treatment preferences probably do not result from differences in health state valuations. Future research should explore whether differences in preferences for other attributes of treatment account for differences in treatment decisions. Cost-utility researchers using the EuroQol—5D or VAS need not account for blacks' and Hispanics' systematically valuing health states differently than whites do. However, caution may be warranted when considering interventions designed to manage pain or discomfort, because blacks and Hispanics gave greater weight to that domain of health status in their valuations.

Suggested Citation

  • Darrell J. Gaskin & Kevin D. Frick, 2008. "Race and Ethnic Disparities in Valuing Health," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 28(1), pages 12-20, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:28:y:2008:i:1:p:12-20
    DOI: 10.1177/0272989X07309641
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X07309641
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0272989X07309641?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William F. Lawrence & John A. Fleishman, 2004. "Predicting EuroQoL EQ-5D Preference Scores from the SF-12 Health Survey in a Nationally Representative Sample," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 24(2), pages 160-169, March.
    2. Saha, S. & Arbelaez, J.J. & Cooper, L.A., 2003. "Patient-Physician Relationships and Racial Disparities in the Quality of Health Care," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(10), pages 1713-1719.
    3. Daniel Polsky & Richard J. Willke & Karen Scott & Kevin A. Schulman & Henry A. Glick, 2001. "A comparison of scoring weights for the EuroQol© derived from patients and the general public," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(1), pages 27-37, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Agata Łaszewska & Ayesha Sajjad & Jan Busschbach & Judit Simon & Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen, 2022. "Conceptual Framework for Optimised Proxy Value Set Selection Through Supra-National Value Set Development for the EQ-5D Instruments," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 40(12), pages 1221-1234, December.
    2. Linda Dynan, 2009. "The Contribution of Economists to Understanding Racial Health Disparities in the US," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 37(3), pages 213-223, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christine McDonough & Anna Tosteson, 2007. "Measuring Preferences for Cost-Utility Analysis," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 93-106, February.
    2. Julia McNabb-Baltar & Quoc-Dien Trinh & Alan N Barkun, 2013. "Disparities in Outcomes following Admission for Cholangitis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-8, March.
    3. Brazier, JE & Yang, Y & Tsuchiya, A, 2008. "A review of studies mapping (or cross walking) from non-preference based measures of health to generic preference-based measures," MPRA Paper 29808, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Damschroder, Laura J. & Zikmund-Fisher, Brian J. & Ubel, Peter A., 2005. "The impact of considering adaptation in health state valuation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 267-277, July.
    5. Thomas Hammerschmidt & Hans-Peter Zeitler & Markus Gulich & Reiner Leidl, 2004. "A Comparison of Different Strategies to Collect Standard Gamble Utilities," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 24(5), pages 493-503, October.
    6. Feagin, Joe & Bennefield, Zinobia, 2014. "Systemic racism and U.S. health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 7-14.
    7. Peiyi Lu & Ying Liang, 2016. "Health-Related Quality of Life of Young Chinese Civil Servants Working in Local Government: Comparison of SF-12 and EQ5D," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 11(4), pages 1445-1464, December.
    8. Mendoza, Sonia & Armbrister, Adria N. & Abraído-Lanza, Ana F., 2018. "Are you better off? Perceptions of social mobility and satisfaction with care among Latina immigrants in the U.S," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 54-60.
    9. Alexander Silbersdorff & Julia Lynch & Stephan Klasen & Thomas Kneib, 2017. "Reconsidering the Income-Illness Relationship using Distributional Regression: An Application to Germany," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 231, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    10. Turner, R. Jay & Thomas, Courtney S. & Brown, Tyson H., 2016. "Childhood adversity and adult health: Evaluating intervening mechanisms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 114-124.
    11. Teal, Cayla R. & Street, Richard L., 2009. "Critical elements of culturally competent communication in the medical encounter: A review and model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 533-543, February.
    12. Joseph T. King Jr & Joel Tsevat & Mark S. Roberts, 2009. "Impact of the Scale Upper Anchor on Health State Preferences," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 29(2), pages 257-266, March.
    13. Celina Bridges & Devan M Duenas & Hannah Lewis & Katherine Anderson & Douglas J Opel & Benjamin S Wilfond & Stephanie A Kraft, 2021. "Patient perspectives on how to demonstrate respect: Implications for clinicians and healthcare organizations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-13, April.
    14. Julie Sturza, 2010. "A Review and Meta-Analysis of Utility Values for Lung Cancer," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 30(6), pages 685-693, November.
    15. Naoru Koizumi & Aileen Rothbard & Tony Smith & Jeremy Mayer, 2011. "Communities of color? Client-to-client racial concordance in the selection of mental health programs for Caucasians and African Americans," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 314-323, November.
    16. Lo, Ming-Cheng Miriam & Bahar, Roxana, 2013. "Resisting the colonization of the lifeworld? Immigrant patients' experiences with co-ethnic healthcare workers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 68-76.
    17. Yvette Peeters & Anne M. Stiggelbout, 2009. "Valuing Health: Does Enriching a Scenario Lead to Higher Utilities?," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 29(3), pages 334-342, May.
    18. Sylvia Brandt & Felipe Vásquez & Michael Hanemann, 2008. "Designing Contingent Valuation Scenarios for Environmental Health: The Case of Childhood Asthma," Working Papers 11-2008, Departamento de Economía, Universidad de Concepción.
    19. Meeuwesen, Ludwien & Harmsen, Johannes A.M. & Bernsen, Roos M.D. & Bruijnzeels, Marc A., 2006. "Do Dutch doctors communicate differently with immigrant patients than with Dutch patients?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(9), pages 2407-2417, November.
    20. Alyson Ma & Alison Sanchez & Mindy Ma, 2022. "Racial disparities in health care utilization, the affordable care act and racial concordance preference," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 91-110, March.

    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:28:y:2008:i:1:p:12-20. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.