Decision-makers’ Preferences for Different Equity and Efficiency Attributes of Health Interventions

The Public Health Research Group and the Center for Policy Studies

 invite you to their first meeting of 2014/2015:

Decision-makers’ Preferences

for Different Equity and Efficiency Attributes of Health Interventions

Results from a Discrete Choice Experiment in Austria, Hungary and Norway

 Petra Baji, PhD

Corvinus University of Budapest, Maastricht University

National guidelines on priority settings include different attributes (such as severity of the disease, the size of the individual benefit of the intervention, the number of beneficiaries, effectiveness, cost effectiveness) to take into account when making decisions on financing health interventions. However, little is known about the preferences of policy makers and health care professionals who are involved in the decision making process as well as about the cross-country differences of these preferences. 

Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) were carried out in three European countries –Austria, Hungary, and Norway– with policy makers, researchers, medical professionals, and professionals from the pharmaceutical industry (N=153 respondents). In this study, interventions were described in terms of different efficiency and equity attributes.

Austria and Hungary show preferences more oriented to efficiency than equity. Norway shows equal weight in preferences for equity and efficiency attributes. All countries show preferences for interventions targeting young and middle age population compared to those targeting population over 65. Conclusion: DCE is a suitable method to reveal preferences of key stakeholders of the healthcare system regarding the priority setting of health care interventions. The results suggest the existence of differences in preferences for the efficiency-equity tradeoff under different health systems.