Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

In the United Kingdom, policy-makers want to improve population health. They also want to reduce inequalities in health between social groups. In contrast, health economic evaluations in the UK are typically “distributionally naïve”: they, usually, focus solely on the average net consequences of interventions, without modelling or valuing their impacts on inequality. Distributional cost effectiveness analysis (DCEA) is a new form of CEA that can capture policy makers stated objectives to improve population health and reduce inequality. We fielded two Person-Trade-Off choice-experiments designed to inform the conduct of DCEAs in the UK. In these studies, we explore how the UK-public think government should act when faced with trade-offs between efficiency and inequality; and test whether “inequality-aversion” differs depending upon the groups between which a health inequality exists and type of health an intervention provides. In total, 1,582 members of the UK-public took part: 80 in a face-to-face study field in Sheffield/Hull, and 1,502 in a study fielded online. We find evidence that the UK-public are more averse to inequalities in health between socioeconomic groups than neutrally labelled groups, and that this difference is, at least in part, driven by the influence non-health factors play in shaping participant responses to questions about socioeconomic groups. In addition, we find evidence that suggests the UK-public are more willing to prioritise disadvantaged socioeconomic groups over advantaged socioeconomic groups for interventions that improve life-expectancy, rather than improve quality of life. In this seminar, Simon will detail these studies and outline their potential implications for DCEA.

This is a free event, which will be taking place online via Zoom. To register your interest in attending this talk please click HERE