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Measuring Patient Preferences by Willingness to Pay to Avoid

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  • Paul Clay Sorum

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid as a method of eliciting relative values for use in expected-value (EV) decision making. Parents' preferences for the events and outcomes associated with acute otitis media (AOM) and its treatment were quantified by means of a questionnaire asking how much they would be willing to pay to avoid them. Their responses were then used to calculate the EVs of treating or not treating presumed AOM with antibiotics. The advantages of the WTP method were its simplicity, its analogy with everyday financial transactions, its explicit recognition of illness and its management as involving decreases in value, and its face validity. The disadvantages included the need to use another method (the standard gamble) to derive a value for death and the wide ranges and the poor test—retest reliability of individual parents' responses. Nonetheless, median WTP val ues and their ranges may prove useful in defining for physicians and policymakers the parameters of their practical management decisions. In the case of AOM, the EV of treating with antibiotics was, for the aggregate sample and for most individual parents, robustly superior because of parents' desire to avoid any increased risk of their chil dren's death. Key words: willingness-to-pay; expected value decision making; patient preferences; acute otitis media; antibiotic treatment. (Med Decis Making 1999;19: 27-37)

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Clay Sorum, 1999. "Measuring Patient Preferences by Willingness to Pay to Avoid," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 19(1), pages 27-37, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:19:y:1999:i:1:p:27-37
    DOI: 10.1177/0272989X9901900104
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Schwarzinger, Michaël & Carrat, Fabrice & Luchini, Stéphane, 2009. ""If you have the flu symptoms, your asymptomatic spouse may better answer the willingness-to-pay question": Evidence from a double-bounded dichotomous choice model with heterogeneous anchori," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 873-884, July.
    2. Obinna Onwujekwe & Julia Fox‐Rushby & Kara Hanson, 2005. "Inter‐rater and test–retest reliability of three contingent valuation question formats in south‐east Nigeria," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(5), pages 529-536, May.
    3. Michaël Schwarzinger & Fabrice Carrat & Stéphane Luchini, 2009. ""If you have the flu symptoms, your asymptomatic spouse may better answer the willingness-to-pay question". Evidence from a double-bounded dichotomous choice model with heterogeneous anchori," Post-Print inserm-00636179, HAL.
    4. Richard T. Carson, 2011. "Contingent Valuation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2489.
    5. F. Reed Johnson & Semra Özdemir & Carol Mansfield & Steven Hass & Corey A. Siegel & Bruce E. Sands, 2009. "Are Adult Patients More Tolerant of Treatment Risks Than Parents of Juvenile Patients?," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 121-136, January.

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