Health Economics Letters

Do personal and societal preferences differ by socio-demographic group?

  1. Peter Franks1,*,
  2. Erica I. Lubetkin2,
  3. Joy Melnikow1

Article first published online: 23 AUG 2006

DOI: 10.1002/hec.1152

Issue

Health Economics

Health Economics

Volume 16, Issue 3, pages 319–325, March 2007

Additional Information

How to Cite

Franks, P., Lubetkin, E. I. and Melnikow, J. (2007), Do personal and societal preferences differ by socio-demographic group?. Health Econ., 16: 319–325. doi: 10.1002/hec.1152

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Family and Community Medicine, Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, University of California, Sacramento, CA, USA

  2. 2

    Department of Community Health and Social Medicine, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education/CUNY Medical School, New York, NY, USA

*Department of Family and Community Medicine, Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, University of California, Davis, 4860 Y Street, Suite 2300, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 22 FEB 2007
  2. Article first published online: 23 AUG 2006
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 19 JUN 2006
  4. Manuscript Received: 11 AUG 2005

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Keywords:

  • health status;
  • population health;
  • socio-economic status;
  • preferences

Abstract

For equity, preferences used in cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) should yield similar values for different groups with similar health states. We used data from the US 2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, including socio-demographics, EQ-5D Index and EQ Visual Analog Scale (EQ VAS) scores, to examine whether EQ-5D Index (representing community preferences) and EQ VAS (representing personal preferences) scores differed systematically by socio-demographic group. Differences between EQ-5D Index and EQ VAS scores by socio-demographic group were small and mostly not statistically significant. These preliminary findings suggest that using the EQ-5D Index in CEAs may not contribute to socio-demographic inequities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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