Eliciting individual preferences for health care: a case study of perinatal care.

Objective: To demonstrate how a discrete choice experiment (DCE) can be used to elicit individuals' preferences for health care and how these preferences can be incorporated into a cost-benefit analysis.

Methods: A DCE which elicited preferences for three perinatal services: specialist nurse appointments; home visits from a trained lay visitor; and home-help. Cost was included to obtain a monetary measure of the value that individuals place on the services.

The use of jejunal interposition for intractable symptoms complicating peptic ulcer surgery.

Ten patients severely disabled by post-gastrectomy syndromes were allocated to two treatment groups. Those with predominant dumping received a 10-cm antiperistaltic jejunal interposition; those with predominant bile vomiting received a 20-cm isoperistaltic interposition. After follow-up for a minimum of 3 years, 6 patients remained virtually asymptomatic (Visick grades 1 and 2).

Self-control of interbeat interval and pulse transit time at rest and during exercise. A preliminary report.

Attempts were made to establish self-control of interbeat interval (IBI) and pulse transit time (PTT) by providing appropriate biofeedback information to volunteers at rest and during dynamic and isometric exercise. Product feedback (IBI X PTT) was found more reliable than simple heart rate (HR) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) during dynamic exercise. It also produced greater increases in IBI and PTT than did habituation or relaxation under the same conditions.