Willingness to pay in arthritis: a Danish contribution.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the use of willingness-to-pay (WTP) methods with respect to an antagonist of tumour necrosis factor as an antirheumatic drug.


METHODS
One hundred and fifteen rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients at a tertiary care centre in Odense, Denmark were interviewed using two WTP approaches, the contingent ranking and double-bounded (closed-ended) methods.


RESULTS
The average closed-ended WTP value was DKr581 and the average contingent ranking WTP was DKr643. There were no statistically significant differences in the WTP estimates between the two methods.


CONCLUSIONS
It is feasible to use these methods with arthritis patients. If, as suggested in a number of recent reviews, a major effort is to be put into undertaking economic appraisals of arthritis programmes, then this should include more cost-benefit studies using WTP approaches of the kind illustrated in this paper.
Slothuus
U
U
University of Southern Denmark, Odense University, Institute of Public Health, Health Economics, Winsløwparken 19, 3, DK-5000 Odense C, Denmark.
Brooks
R G
RG
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003718:Denmark; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors
D018501:Antirheumatic Agents; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha