Application of Cojoint Analysis to Preferences of Low Back Pain Patients;Final rept. 30 Sep 01-31 Mar 03

摘要

Conjoint analysis establishes the relative importance of different attributes of a good or service as well as marginal rates of substitution between attributes. It can be designed to address opportunity cost and tradeoffs between attributes, which are absent in patient satisfaction surveys or VAS utilities. Structurally, its results can be adapted for use in either cost-utility analysis or cost-benefit analysis. In theory, CA can produce utility estimates incorporating 'process' and 'outcome', as well as 'indirect' estimates of WTP for a service based on estimates of WTP for its individual attributes. Despite many outstanding methodological issues, these characteristics make CA conceptually attractive for use in the economic evaluation of CAM modalities, for which preferences over process attributes-e.g., reassurance, autonomy-may be as relevant as preferences over direct health outcomes such as pain relief. This study uses CA to elicit preferences of a sample of adult Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW) enrollees with acute low back pain (LBP) over hypothetical chiropractic and primary care visits that vary by process and health outcome attributes.