Every Monday our authors provide a round-up of some of the most recently published peer reviewed articles from the field. We don’t cover everything, or even what’s most important – just a few papers that have interested the author. Visit our Resources page for links to more journals or follow the HealthEconBot. If you’d like to write one of our weekly journal round-ups, get in touch.
Does the approach to economic evaluation in health care depend on culture, values and institutional context? European Journal of Health Economics [PubMed] Published 5th December 2017
In last week’s round-up we looked at a paper that attempted to develop guidance for costing across European economic evaluations, even when the guidelines across countries vary as to what should and should not be included in an economic evaluation. Why is it that there is such variation in health economic evaluation methods across countries? Why are economic outcomes like quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) standard practice in some countries yet frowned upon in others? This editorial argues that cultures, values and institutional context play a role in the economic evaluation methodologies applied across countries. It does so by comparing five large European countries in terms of 1. the organisation and governance of the agencies undertaking health technology assessments (HTAs) and economic evaluation, 2. the methods used for economic evaluation, and 3. the use of HTA and economic evaluation in decision making. The authors argue that due to differences in these areas across countries, it is difficult to see how a “one size fits all” economic evaluation framework can be implemented, when health care systems, their regulations and social values towards health care differ. An argument is presented that where greater social value is placed on horizontal equity (equal treatment of equals) over vertical equity (unequal treatment of unequals), the QALY outcome is more likely to be applied in such countries. They argue that of the five largest European countries, the German efficiency frontier model of economic analysis may offer the best off-the-shelf option for countries like the United States who also have similar qualms about the use of QALYs in decision making. However, it may be the case that current economic evaluations lack international application due to other reasons beyond those notable considerations raised in this paper.
Reconciling ethical and economic conceptions of value in health policy using the capabilities approach: a qualitative investigation of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing. Social Science & Medicine [PubMed] [RePEc] Published 16th November 2017
The capability approach, initially developed by economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, provides an alternative evaluative framework to welfare economics, shifting the focus on individual welfare away from utility and preferences, towards a person’s freedom to do and be valuable things to their life. It has more recently been used as a critique of the current approach to health economic evaluations, specifically what aspects of quality of life are included in the economic outcome, where the current measurement tools used in the generation of QALYs have been argued to have too narrow a focus on health outcomes, with a number of capability measures now developed as alternatives. This study, on the other hand, applies the capability approach to tackle health technologies that pose difficult ethical challenges where standard clinical and economic outcomes used in cost-effectiveness analysis may be in conflict with social values. The authors propose why they think the evaluative framework of the capability approach may be advantageous in such areas, using non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), a screening test that analyses cell-free fetal DNA circulating in maternal blood in order to gain information about the fetal genotype, as a case study. The authors propose that adopting a capability evaluative framework in NIPT may account for the enhancement of valuable options available to prospective parents and families, as well as capabilities that may be diminished if NIPT was made routinely available, such as the option of refusing a test as an informed choice. A secondary analysis of qualitative data was conducted on women with experience of NIPT in Canada. Using a constructivist orientation to directed qualitative content analysis, interviews were analysed to see how NIPT related to a pre-existing list of ten Central Human Capabilities developed by philosopher Martha Nussbaum. From the analysis, they found eight of the ten Nussbaum capabilities emerge from the interviewees who were not directly asked to consider capability in the interview. As well as these eight (life; bodily health; bodily integrity; senses, imagination and thought; emotions; practical reason; affiliation; control over one’s environment), a new capability emerged related to care-taking as a result of NIPT, both for potential children and also the impact on existing children. The next challenge for the authors will be trying to formulate their findings into a usable outcome measure for decision-making. However, the analysis undertaken here is a good example of how economists can attempt to tackle the assessment of ethically challenging technologies as a way of dealing with standard economic outcomes that might be considered counter-productive in such evaluations.
Quality of life in a broader perspective: does ASCOT reflect the capability approach? Quality of Life Research [PubMed] Published 14th December 2017
The Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) is a measure developed specifically for the economic assessment of social care interventions in the UK. Although a number of versions of ASCOT have been developed, the most recent version of ASCOT has been argued to be a measure influenced by the capability approach, even though previous versions of the measure were not justified similarly, so it remains to be seen how influential the capability approach is in the composition of this outcome measure. This study attempts to add justification of linking the capability approach with the ASCOT by conducting a literature review on the capability approach to identify key issues of quality of life measurement and how ASCOT deals with these issues. The methods for conducting the literature review are not described in detail in this paper, but the authors state that three primary issues with quality of life measurement in the capability approach literature that emerge from their review are concerned with 1. the measurement of capability, 2. non-reliance on adaptive preferences, and 3. focus on a multidimensional evaluative space. The authors argue that capability measurement is tackled by ASCOT, through the use of “as I want” phraseology at the top level on the ASCOT dimensions. Adaptive preferences are argued to be tackled by the use of general population preferences of different states on ASCOT and the outcome addresses several dimensions of quality of life. I would argue that there is much more to measuring capability beyond these three areas identified by the authors. Although the authors rightly question if the “as I want” phraseology is adequate to measure capability in their conclusion, the other two criteria could equally justify most measures for generating QALYs, so the criteria they use to be a capability measure is set at a very low benchmark. I remain unconvinced about how much of a capability measure ASCOT actually is in practice.
Credits
