This month’s meeting will take place Monday 7th January, at 8pm London time. That’ll be midnight in Moscow and 6pm in Sao Paulo. Join the Facebook event here. For more information about the Health Economics Twitter Journal Club and how to take part, click here.
The paper for discussion this month is published in Social Science & Medicine and the authors are Emily Lancsar and colleagues. The title of the paper is:
“Best worst discrete choice experiments in health: Methods and an application”
Following the meeting, a transcript of the discussion can be downloaded here.
Links to the article
Official: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612007290
RePEc: http://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v76y2013icp74-82.html
Other: tbc
Summary of the paper
This study presents an alternative method to standard discrete choice experiments (DCE) in health, in the form of ‘best worst discrete choice experiments’ (BWDCE). The authors present BWDCE as a useful method for the elicitation of preferences over different sets of goods, services or policy issues. BWDCE involves individuals selecting their most preferred and least preferred choices from various alternatives. The same process can then be carried out for remaining options to establish a complete ranking of choice sets. The authors report on their findings from an application of the BWDCE methods for treatment of cardiac arrest occurring in public places, highlighting the observed benefits of BWDCE over more traditional methods including increased statistical efficiency and a need for smaller sample sizes.
Discussion points
- Is the low completion rate cause for concern?
- Is the use of rank ordered logit and the analysis of first best data appropriate given the form of the data collection?
- Does the use of BWDCE in health require the acceptance of stricter assumptions about stated preferences?
- Is the phraseology likely to be of greater importance when using BWDCE?
Missed the meeting? Add your thoughts on the paper in the comments below.
