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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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    Cited by:

    1. Denburg, Avram E. & Ungar, Wendy J. & Chen, Shiyi & Hurley, Jeremiah & Abelson, Julia, 2020. "Does moral reasoning influence public values for health care priority setting?: A population-based randomized stated preference survey," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(6), pages 647-658.
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    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. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Aki Tsuchiya, 2000. "QALYs and ageism: philosophical theories and age weighting," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(1), pages 57-68, January.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. Stolk, Elly A. & Brouwer, Werner B. F. & Busschbach, Jan J. V., 2002. "Rationalising rationing: economic and other considerations in the debate about funding of Viagra," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 53-63, January.
    12. 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.
    13. Mira Johri & Laura J. Damschroder & Brian J. Zikmund‐Fisher & Peter A. Ubel, 2005. "The importance of age in allocating health care resources: does intervention‐type matter?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(7), pages 669-678, July.
    14. Arnesen, Kjell E. & Erikssen, Jan & Stavem, Knut, 2002. "Gender and socioeconomic status as determinants of waiting time for inpatient surgery in a system with implicit queue management," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 329-341, December.
    15. 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.
    16. Alan Williams, 1997. "Intergenerational Equity: An Exploration of the ‘Fair Innings’ Argument," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(2), pages 117-132, March.
    17. 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.
    18. Karen Huang & Regan M. Bernhard & Netta Barak-Corren & Max Bazerman & Joshua D. Greene, 2021. "Veil-of-ignorance reasoning mitigates self-serving bias in resource allocation during the COVID-19 crisis," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 16(1), pages 1-19, January.
    19. Ann M. Holmes, 1997. "A Method to Elicit Utilities for Interpersonal Comparisons," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 17(1), pages 10-20, February.
    20. Rodríguez-Míguez, Eva & Herrero, Carmen & Pinto-Prades, José Luis, 2004. "Using a point system in the management of waiting lists: the case of cataracts," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 585-594, August.
    21. 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.
    22. 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.
    23. 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.
    24. Mæstad, Ottar & Norheim, Ole Frithjof, 2012. "A universal preference for equality in health? Reasons to reconsider properties of applied social welfare functions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1836-1843.

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