10 research outputs found
Measuring Health Spillovers for Economic Evaluation: A Case Study in Meningitis
The health of carers and others close to the patient will often be relevant to economic evaluation, but it is very rarely considered in practice. This may reflect a lack of understanding of how the spillover effect of illness can be appropriately quantified. In this study we used three different approaches to quantify health spillovers resulting from meningitis. We conducted a survey of 1218 family networks affected by meningitis and used regression modelling to estimate spillover effects. The findings show that meningitis had long-term effects on family members' health, particularly affecting the likelihood of family members reporting anxiety and depression. These effects extended beyond a single close family member. These findings suggest that vaccinating against meningitis will bring significant health benefits not just to those that might have contracted the illness but also to their family networks. In methodological terms, different approaches for quantifying health spillovers provided broadly consistent results. The choice of method will be influenced by the ease of collecting primary data from family members in intervention contexts
An investigation of the construct validity of the ICECAP-A capability measure
Abstract
Purpose To investigate the construct validity of the
ICECAP-A capability wellbeing measure.
Methods A face-to-face interview-administered survey
was conducted with 418 members of the UK general
population, randomly sampled from the Postcode Address
File. Pre-specified hypotheses were developed about the
expected associations between individuals’ ICECAP-A
responses and their socio-economic circumstances, health
and freedom. The hypotheses were investigated using statistical
tests of association.
Results The ICECAP-A responses and scores reflected
differences across different health and socioeconomic
groups as anticipated, but did not distinguish individuals by
the level of local deprivation. Mean ICECAP-A scores
reflected individuals’ perceived freedom slightly more
closely than did measures of health and happiness.
Conclusion This study suggests that the ICECAP-A
measure can identify expected differences in capability
wellbeing in a general population sample. Further work
could establish whether self-reported capabilities exhibit
desirable validity and acceptability in sub-groups of the
population such as patients, social care recipients and
informal carers