Framing Effects of Risk Communication in Health-Related Decision Making; Learning from a Discrete Choice Experiment

GATE Working Paper No. 09-21

25 Pages Posted: 29 Nov 2009 Last revised: 15 Apr 2011

See all articles by Florence Nguyen

Florence Nguyen

University of Lyon 2 - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique (GATE)

Marie Odile Carrere

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Nora Moumjid

University of Lyon 2 - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique (GATE)

Date Written: November 25, 2009

Abstract

Background How to communicate uncertainty is a major concern in medicine and in health economics. We aimed at studying the framing effects of risk communication on stated preferences in a discrete choice experiment (DCE) performed to elicit women’s preferences for Hormone Replacement Therapy. Methods Two versions of the questionnaire were randomly administered to respondents. Multiple risks were expressed as natural frequencies using either a constant reference class (Design 1) or variable reference classes (Design 2). We first tested whether Design 1 would impose a lower cognitive burden than Design 2. We then examined whether the two designs resulted in different utility model estimates. Results Design 1 improved consistency (monotonicity and stability). However, rates of dominance or intransitive responses did not differ across designs. Design 1 decreased women’s sensitivity to the risk of fractures and increased their sensitivity to the risk of breast cancer as compared to all other attributes. Discussion Framing effects of risk communication on stated preferences may be a major problem in the design of DCEs. More research is needed to determine whether our findings are replicable and to further investigate the normative question of how to improve risk communication in health-related decision-making.

Keywords: Framing effects, Risk communication, Discrete choice experiment

JEL Classification: C12, I19, D83

Suggested Citation

Nguyen, Florence and Carrere, Marie Odile and Moumjid, Nora, Framing Effects of Risk Communication in Health-Related Decision Making; Learning from a Discrete Choice Experiment (November 25, 2009). GATE Working Paper No. 09-21, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1513293 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1513293

Florence Nguyen (Contact Author)

University of Lyon 2 - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique (GATE) ( email )

93, chemin des Mouilles
Ecully, 69130
France

Marie Odile Carrere

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

Nora Moumjid

University of Lyon 2 - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique (GATE) ( email )

93, chemin des Mouilles
Ecully, 69130
France

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
102
Abstract Views
1,331
Rank
397,464
PlumX Metrics