title: Allocating scarce medical resources to the overweight.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A programmatic research effort investigated how lay people weigh information on hypothetical patients when making decisions regarding the allocation of scarce medical resources. This study is partly replicative and partly innovative, and looks particularly at whether overweight patients would be discriminated against in allocating resources.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to determine the importance given to specific patient characteristics when lay participants are asked to allocate scarce medical resources.
  
  
  METHODS
  In all, 156 British adults (82 males, 73 females), aged 19 to 84 years, took part. There were few students.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants completed a questionnaire requiring them to rank 16 hypothetical patients for access to a kidney dialysis machine.The demographic information presented regarding each hypothetical patient differed on four dimensions: gender, weight, mental health, and religiousness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were significant main effects for gender, weight, and mental health; females, patients of normal weight, and the mentally well were ranked the highest priority for access to a kidney dialysis machine. Participants discriminated most regarding the weight of hypothetical patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Different patient characteristics, unrelated to medical prognoses, particularly being overweight, may have an impact on decisions regarding the use of scarce medical resources.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London. a.furnham@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Furnham
authors.forename: Niroosha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Loganathan
authors.forename: Alastair
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McClelland
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000941:ethics; D006295:Health Resources / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D050177:Overweight; D018579:Patient Selection / Q000941:ethics*; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000941:ethics; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires