Parouty M B Y, Le H H, Krooshof D, Postma M J
Department of Pharmacy, Unit of PharmacoEpidemiology & PharmacoEconomics (PE2), University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Pharmacoeconomics. 2014 Apr;32(4):411-9. doi: 10.1007/s40273-013-0124-8.
This study provides an empirical investigation into differential time preferences between money and quality of life. Thus far, time preference investigations in health have mostly involved life-years gained and lives saved. However, the quality-adjusted life-year, which is recommended by several bodies, is a multiplicative measure of life duration and quality of life. To our knowledge, our study is the first to follow this approach specifically for quality of life.
A questionnaire was developed to elicit time preferences for quality of life and for money, and it was distributed to a representative sample of the Dutch population. We also investigated the impact of population characteristics, such as current health state, optimistic/pessimistic future views or gender, on time preferences.
We found that discount rates for both money and quality of life decrease with increasing time of delay, with rates of the former being consistently at least two times higher than those of the latter. Similar trends in time preferences were observed across the subgroups, with the exception of the relatively high education subgroup.
In agreement with the results of other studies, our empirically derived discount rates are higher than the rates featured in national guidelines for health care economic assessment. Our empirical study adds to the evidence for differential discounting, both with regards to money and health, as well as in time.
本研究对金钱和生活质量之间的差异时间偏好进行了实证调查。到目前为止，健康领域的时间偏好调查大多涉及获得的生命年数和挽救的生命。然而，几个机构推荐的质量调整生命年是生命时长和生活质量的乘积指标。据我们所知，我们的研究是首个专门针对生活质量采用这种方法的研究。
设计了一份问卷来获取对生活质量和金钱的时间偏好，并将其分发给荷兰人口的代表性样本。我们还研究了人口特征，如当前健康状况、乐观/悲观的未来看法或性别，对时间偏好的影响。
我们发现，金钱和生活质量的贴现率都随着延迟时间的增加而降低，前者的贴现率始终至少是后者的两倍。除了受教育程度相对较高的亚组外，各亚组的时间偏好都呈现出类似趋势。
与其他研究结果一致，我们通过实证得出的贴现率高于医疗保健经济评估国家指南中的贴现率。我们的实证研究为金钱和健康方面以及时间方面的差异贴现提供了更多证据。
