Cardinal Scales for Public Health Evaluation

Abstract

Policy studies often evaluate health for a population by summing the individuals’ health as measured by a scale that is ordinal or that depends on risk attitudes. We develop a method using a different type of preferences, called preference intensity or cardinal preferences, to construct scales that measure changes in health. The method is based on a social welfare model that relates preferences between changes in an individual’s health to preferences between changes in health for a population.public health evaluation; social welfare; preference intensity; health state