Overcoming inherent problems of preference-based techniques for measuring health benefits: An empirical study in the context of kidney transplantation

摘要

BackgroundEconomic valuations of health care programs often require using patients as subjects, implying that research methodology should conform to the surrounding social, cultural and ethical context. The significance of patients' opinions in health care decisions has been well defined but in Greece, and perhaps elsewhere, clinicians remain skeptical. The purpose of this study was to investigate, for the first time in Greece, the feasibility of measuring preference-based health-state utilities and willingness to pay and to determine the context-based adaptations required to overcome inherent elicitation problems.