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On the societal value of health care: what do we know about the person trade‐off technique?

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  • Colin Green

Abstract

The person trade‐off (PTO) technique has been suggested as a means of eliciting social preferences for health care, both the valuation of health care interventions and, more recently, to inform on the weights that society may attach to other decision‐making criteria (e.g. the severity of a patients pre‐treatment condition). Given the increased attention afforded to the PTO technique, this review examines the current evidence to inform on the ability of the PTO to provide a measure of social preference. Applying criteria of practicality, reliability and validity to empirical and theoretical contributions to the PTO literature, the review finds that the technique has limited empirical support. Applications of the PTO have been in a largely experimental setting, the reliability of the PTO is unproven and the empirical validity of the technique, in terms its ability to reflect actual preferences, remains unclear. In the broader context of the valuation of health states or outcomes, all techniques are open to criticism. Given this position, the review finds support for the potential of the PTO in the assessment of the societal value of health care, and it supports further empirical inquiry on the PTO. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Colin Green, 2001. "On the societal value of health care: what do we know about the person trade‐off technique?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(3), pages 233-243, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:10:y:2001:i:3:p:233-243
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.581
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ryan, Mandy & Kinghorn, Philip & Entwistle, Vikki A. & Francis, Jill J., 2014. "Valuing patients' experiences of healthcare processes: Towards broader applications of existing methods," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 194-203.
    2. Edward C. Mansley & Elamin H. Elbasha, 2003. "Preferences and person trade‐offs: forcing consistency or inconsistency in health‐related quality of life measures?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(3), pages 187-198, March.
    3. Erik Nord & Jose Luis Pinto & Jeff Richardson & Paul Menzel & Peter Ubel, 1999. "Incorporating societal concerns for fairness in numerical valuations of health programmes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(1), pages 25-39, February.
    4. Arnesen, Trude & Kapiriri, Lydia, 2004. "Can the value choices in DALYs influence global priority-setting?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 137-149, November.
    5. Benjamin M. Craig & Jan J. V. Busschbach, 2011. "Toward a more universal approach in health valuation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(7), pages 864-875, July.
    6. Ryan, Mandy & Scott, David A. & Donaldson, Cam, 2004. "Valuing health care using willingness to pay: a comparison of the payment card and dichotomous choice methods," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 237-258, March.
    7. Lars Østerdal, 2009. "The lack of theoretical support for using person trade-offs in QALY-type models," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 10(4), pages 429-436, October.
    8. Chris Skedgel & Dean Regier, 2015. "Constant-Sum Paired Comparisons for Eliciting Stated Preferences: A Tutorial," The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Springer;International Academy of Health Preference Research, vol. 8(2), pages 155-163, April.
    9. Carlota Quintal, 2009. "Aversion to geographic inequality and geographic variation in preferences in the context of healthcare," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 121-136, June.
    10. Ju-Hee Kim & Hyo-Jin Kim & Seung-Hoon Yoo, 2018. "Economic Value of Building a Firefighter Training Academy for Urban Disaster Management in Seoul, South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Charles M. Harvey & Lars Peter Østerdal, 2010. "Cardinal Scales for Health Evaluation," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 7(3), pages 256-281, September.

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