Israeli lay persons' views on priority-setting criteria for Alzheimer's disease.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to assess Israeli lay persons' preferences for setting priorities for the care of Alzheimer's disease (AD).


BACKGROUND
As the knowledge about AD accumulates, and especially as more therapeutic and non-therapeutic interventions for its early diagnosis and treatment are developed, health-care costs associated with the disease rise dramatically. Therefore, setting priorities for funding these therapies, as well as other costs associated with AD is becoming an increasingly complex need.


METHODS
A convenience sample of 624 community-dwelling men and women participated in the study (mean age = 49, range = 20-90). Participants were asked how strongly they agreed or disagreed with 18 criteria that would be used to set priorities for the allocation of resources in the area of AD.


RESULTS
High-weight criteria included being a life-threatening condition and the benefit of treatment. Average-weight criteria included the severity of the disease, treatment costs and equity of access. The age of the patient also was highly rated. All other patient-related criteria were rated as low. Value orientations and education were the main variables associated with participants' preferences.


CONCLUSIONS
The lay public seems to endorse a multi-criteria decision process for the allocation of resources in the area of AD. Similar to other diseases--disease-related criteria were highly preferred. These preferences should be compared with those of other stakeholders such as clinicians and policy makers.
Werner
Perla
P
Department of Gerontology, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. werner@research.haifa.ac.il