Heterogeneity in Preferences for Primary Care Consultations: Results from a Discrete Choice Experiment

Authors

  • Alessandro Mengoni Azienda Sanitaria Unica Regionale, Ancona, Italy
  • Chiara Seghieri Laboratorio Management e Sanità, Istituto di Management, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy
  • Sabina Nuti Laboratorio Management e Sanità, Istituto di Management, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-6029.2013.02.01.08

Keywords:

Physician-patient relations, primary care, public preference elicitation, patient-centred care, discrete choice experiment

Abstract

Purpose: The increasing importance of flexibility in the general practitioner (GP) -patient consultation approach in primary care requires healthcare managers and physicians to find a balance among all the potentially important characteristics of consultation. This study used a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to assess patients’ preferences for different attributes of GP consultation and how the rate at which they traded between different attributes is affected by socio-demographic characteristics and past experiences with primary care services .

Methods: A survey was conducted to a sample of 6970 residents in Tuscany region, Italy. Besides socio-demographic characteristics the survey collected information about participants’ past experience with GP consultation in the last 12 months. Moreover, participants were asked to select their preferred option in a series of pairwise choices, defined by the following attributes: level of involvement in decision making, amount of information received from the GP and waiting time for the visit.

Results: Results revealed that receiving information from the GP was more important than being involved in the decisions and that, approximately, a complete involvement had the same importance as a partial involvement. Participants' past experience with GP’s consultation appeared to have the greatest influence on the involvement level. The amount of information required by the respondents was also influenced by a complex interplay of personal and contextual factors.

Conclusions: This large-scale study extends the body of literature on DCE applications for different GP consultation approaches, providing new information about the influence that patients’ socio-demographic characteristics and past experiences could have on consultation preferences.

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Published

2013-02-12

How to Cite

Mengoni, A., Seghieri, C., & Nuti, S. (2013). Heterogeneity in Preferences for Primary Care Consultations: Results from a Discrete Choice Experiment. International Journal of Statistics in Medical Research, 2(1), 67–75. https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-6029.2013.02.01.08

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General Articles