Positive association between current health and health values for hypothetical disease states.
BACKGROUND
Valuations of hypothetical health state scenarios can be affected by participant characteristics.


METHODS
The authors interviewed 108 veterans using the visual analogue scale (VAS), standard gamble (SG), time tradeoff (TTO), and willingness to pay (WTP) to measure health values for 1) current health and 2) 3 hypothetical health states portrayed in written scenarios describing cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), a degenerative spine condition. They used bivariate rank order and multivariate regression analyses to assess the relationship between CSM values, participants' characteristics, and participants' current health values.


RESULTS
Participants were predominantly male (89.8%) and Caucasian (75.9%), with a median age of 58.3 years and a median annual income of $15,000. Median values for current health were VAS, 0.75; SG, 0.80; TTO, 0.80; and WTP, $25,000. In the multivariate analysis, higher CSM values were associated with better current health as measured with the SG, TTO, and WTP (for all, P < 0.001); there was no association with VAS values (P = 0.157).


CONCLUSIONS
Health values for CSM are positively associated with the current health of the study population.
Section of Neurosurgery, Acute Care Service Line, Surgical Service/112, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, 950 Campbell Avenue, West Haven 06516, USA. Joseph.KingJr@med.va.gov
Joseph T
JT
King
Joel
J
Tsevat
Mark S
MS
Roberts
D017281:Cost of Illness; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013130:Spinal Stenosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*