[Nudges and the pandemic: An analysis from economics and behavioural law. SESPAS Report 2022].

Behavioural economics (a combination of economics and psychology) provides keys to understand decisions made by politicians and citizens along the COVID-19 pandemic through the so-called cognitive biases. These biases can be offset by implementing behavioural interventions named "nudges" in order to promote responsible behaviours in the "new normality". This paper analyses, from a behavioural economics perspective, past, present and future of behavioural aspects surrounding the pandemic.

Converting Parkinson-Specific Scores into Health State Utilities to Assess Cost-Utility Analysis.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-8 (PDQ-8) with three multi-attribute utility (MAU) instruments (EQ-5D-3L, EQ-5D-5L, and 15D) and to develop mapping algorithms that could be used to transform PDQ-8 scores into MAU scores.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. A final sample of 228 evaluable patients was included in the analyses.

Reducing preference reversals: The role of preference imprecision and nontransparent methods.

Preferences elicited with matching and choice usually diverge (as characterised by preference reversals), violating a basic rationality requirement, namely, procedure invariance. We report the results of an experiment that shows that preference reversals between matching (Standard Gamble in our case) and choice are reduced when the matching task is conducted using nontransparent methods. Our results suggest that techniques based on nontransparent methods are less influenced by biases (i.

Improving scope sensitivity in contingent valuation: Joint and separate evaluation of health states.

We present data of a contingent valuation survey, testing the effect of evaluation mode on the monetary valuation of preventing road accidents. Half of the interviewees was asked to state their willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce the risk of having only 1 type of injury (separate evaluation, SE), and the other half of the sample was asked to state their WTP for 4 types of injuries evaluated simultaneously (joint evaluation, JE). In the SE group, we observed lack of sensitivity to scope while in the JE group WTP increased with the severity of the injury prevented.

[How it should be enabled network cooperation on healthcare services. Towards an HispaNICE?].

Although the Spanish Network of Health Technology Assessment was founded in 2012, it is true that its actual influence on the rationalization of the National Health System's healthcare basket is scarce. The main argument of this article is that the Spanish Network of HTA should work "as if" it was an HispaNICE. That is to say, transferring the NICE's advantages to Spanish context.

[Monetary value of the human costs of road traffic injuries in Spain].

Cost-benefit analyses in the field of road safety compute human costs as a key component of total costs. The present article presents two studies promoted by the Directorate-General for Traffic aimed at obtaining official values for the costs associated with fatal and non-fatal traffic injuries in Spain. We combined the contingent valuation approach and the (modified) standard gamble technique in two surveys administered to large representative samples (n1=2,020, n2=2,000) of the Spanish population.

[Response bias in a population postal survey on Health-Related Quality of Life (sf-12v2)].

Background: the bias associated with the low response rate may limit the economic advantage of population surveys by mail. The factors associated with non-response were estimated with an emphasis on Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL).

Methods: people who had answered to the Health Survey Murcia-2007 2007 (≥ 18 years), realized by telephone, were sent another postal questionnaire four months later.

[Privatization in healthcare management: an adverse effect of the economic crisis and a symptom of bad governance. SESPAS report 2014].

It is often asserted that public management of healthcare facilities is inefficient. On the basis of that unproven claim, it is argued that privatization schemes are needed. In this article we review the available evidence, in Spain and other countries, on the application of private management mechanisms to publicly funded systems similar to the Spanish national health system.

Validation and comparison of 15-D and EQ-5D-5L instruments in a Spanish Parkinson's disease population sample.

Purpose: To contribute to the ongoing discussion on the choice of a preference-based health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instrument to be used in cost-effectiveness analysis by studying and comparing the validity, sensitivity and relative efficiency of 15-D and EuroQol 5D 5L (EQ-5D-5L) in a Spanish Parkinson's disease (PD) population sample.

Methods: One hundred and thirty-three volunteers were asked to complete an interview using 15-D and EQ-5D-5L. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (r) was used to test the convergent validity of these instruments with specific PD measures.

Lowering the 'floor' of the SF-6D scoring algorithm using a lottery equivalent method.

This paper presents a new scoring algorithm for the SF-6D, one of the most popular preference-based health status measures. Previous SF-6D value sets have a minimum (a floor), which is substantially higher than the lowest value generated by the EQ-5D model. Our algorithm expands the range of SF-6D utility scores in such a way that the floor is significantly lowered.

Inverse probability weighted estimation of social tariffs: an illustration using the SF-6D value sets.

This paper presents a novel approach to model health state valuations using inverse probability weighting techniques. Our approach makes no assumption on the distribution of health state values, accommodates covariates in a flexible way, eschews parametric assumptions on the relationship between the outcome and the covariates, allows for an undetermined amount of heterogeneity in the estimates and it formally tests and corrects for sample selection biases. The proposed model is semi-parametrically estimated and it is illustrated with health state valuation data collected for Spain using the SF-6D descriptive system.

The predictive validity of prospect theory versus expected utility in health utility measurement.

Most health care evaluations today still assume expected utility even though the descriptive deficiencies of expected utility are well known. Prospect theory is the dominant descriptive alternative for expected utility. This paper tests whether prospect theory leads to better health evaluations than expected utility.

[Quality assessment of economic evaluations in health care: a checklist and user guide].

The aim of this paper is to promote the efficiency in the process of incorporating new health technologies, as well as to guide their implementation by physicians. An iterative method has been used to draw a checklist based on parsimony and measurability criteria. Authors made a first version of the checklist on the basis of theoretical literature and economic evaluation guidelines.

[How should patients' utilities be incorporated into clinical decisions? 2008 SESPAS Report].

There are many clinical situations in which there is no "right" decision from a technical point of view. An example of this is elective surgery, in which patients' preferences are critical. One way to integrate patients' preferences within clinical practice is the application of decision analysis.

[How should health and healthcare priorities be set and evaluated? Prioritization methods and regional disparities. 2008 SESPAS Report].

The conflict between scarce resources and unlimited needs is perhaps more prominent in the healthcare sector than in any other areas. Thus, setting priorities in health care emerges as an unavoidable task. The laudable aim of adopting any health technology that improves the population's health is impossible when confronted by budgetary constraints.

A consistency test of the time trade-off.

This paper tests the internal consistency of time trade-off utilities. We find significant violations of consistency in the direction predicted by loss aversion. The violations disappear for higher gauge durations.