Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Getting it right with discrete choice experiments: Are we hot or cold?

Publication ,  Journal Article
Ozdemir, S; Gonzalez, JM; Bansal, P; Huynh, VA; Sng, BL; Finkelstein, E
Published in: Soc Sci Med
May 2024

Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs) are widely employed survey-based methods to assess preferences for healthcare services and products. While they offer an experimental way to represent health-related decisions, the stylized representation of scenarios in DCEs may overlook contextual factors that could influence decision-making. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the predictive validity of preferences elicited through a DCE in decisions likely influenced by a hot-cold empathy gap, and compare it to another commonly used method, a direct-elicitation question. We focused on preferences for pain-relief modalities, especially for an epidural during childbirth - a context where direct-elicitation questions have shown a preference for or intention to have a natural birth (representing the "cold" state), yet individuals often opt for an epidural during labor (representing the "hot" state). Leveraging a unique dataset collected from 248 individuals, we incorporated both the stated preferences collected through a survey administered upon hospital admission for childbirth and the actual pain-relief modality usage data documented in medical records. The DCE allowed for the evaluation of scenarios outside of those expected by respondents to simulate decision-making during childbirth. When we compared the predicted epidural use with the actual epidural use during labor, we observed a choice concordance of 71-60%, depending on the model specification. The concordance rate between the predicted and actual choices increased to 77-76% when accounting for the initial use of other ineffective modalities. In contrast, the direct-elicitation choices, relying solely on respondents' baseline expectations, yielded a lower concordance rate of 58% with actual epidural use. These findings highlight the flexibility of the DCE method in simulating complex decision contexts, including those involving hot-cold empathy gaps. The DCE proves valuable in assessing nuanced preferences, providing a more accurate representation of the decision-making processes in healthcare scenarios.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Soc Sci Med

DOI

EISSN

1873-5347

Publication Date

May 2024

Volume

348

Start / End Page

116850

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Public Health
  • Pregnancy
  • Patient Preference
  • Pain Management
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Decision Making
  • Choice Behavior
  • Analgesia, Epidural
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Ozdemir, S., Gonzalez, J. M., Bansal, P., Huynh, V. A., Sng, B. L., & Finkelstein, E. (2024). Getting it right with discrete choice experiments: Are we hot or cold? Soc Sci Med, 348, 116850. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116850
Ozdemir, Semra, Juan Marcos Gonzalez, Prateek Bansal, Vinh Anh Huynh, Ban Leong Sng, and Eric Finkelstein. “Getting it right with discrete choice experiments: Are we hot or cold?Soc Sci Med 348 (May 2024): 116850. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116850.
Ozdemir S, Gonzalez JM, Bansal P, Huynh VA, Sng BL, Finkelstein E. Getting it right with discrete choice experiments: Are we hot or cold? Soc Sci Med. 2024 May;348:116850.
Ozdemir, Semra, et al. “Getting it right with discrete choice experiments: Are we hot or cold?Soc Sci Med, vol. 348, May 2024, p. 116850. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116850.
Ozdemir S, Gonzalez JM, Bansal P, Huynh VA, Sng BL, Finkelstein E. Getting it right with discrete choice experiments: Are we hot or cold? Soc Sci Med. 2024 May;348:116850.
Journal cover image

Published In

Soc Sci Med

DOI

EISSN

1873-5347

Publication Date

May 2024

Volume

348

Start / End Page

116850

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Public Health
  • Pregnancy
  • Patient Preference
  • Pain Management
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Decision Making
  • Choice Behavior
  • Analgesia, Epidural