The effect of medical experience on the economic evaluation of health policies.: A discrete choice experiment

In this paper we present results on the effect of medical experience on the economic evaluation of health policies utilizing the method of discrete choice experiments. Subjects in two split samples were asked about choice situations involving alternative profiles defined by the attributes of an innovative program for cervical cancer screening. The first sample was formed by expert medical practitioners who were familiar with the illness and its potential treatments. A second sample was formed by young undergraduate students in social sciences who were not familiar with the illness or with the potential benefits of screening programmes. The statistical comparison between both subsamples utilizes a robust method for discrete choice models which shows that there are no significant differences in the structural models and the parameter estimates. The main implication is that background medical information and familiarity with the process of illness might not have a relevant impact on the valuation of health policies with discrete choice experiments. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.