Monetary valuation of illnesses in Costa Rica: a subjective well-being approach Estimación del valor monetario de las enfermedades en Costa Rica: enfoque del bienestar subjetivo

• Main Author: Mariano Rojas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2009
• Subjects: Política de salud; costo de enfermedad; satisfacción personal; felicidad; Costa Rica; Health policy; cost of illness; personal satisfaction; happiness; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/6b23bd08764e443c89f7e62de0b9e626

OBJECTIVE: This report aims to 1) explain and illustrate the use of the subjective well-being (SWB) approach as an alternative health-valuation methodology by estimating the monetary value of five general categories of illness in Costa Rica, and 2) foster comparative research on the advantages and limitations of alternative approaches to health valuation. METHOD: Use of the SWB valuation approach to measure the monetary value of illness (MVI), based on empirical data from a representative survey in Costa Rica carried out in 2004. The MVI is defined as the estimated percentage of monthly income that would be required to compensate for the loss in life satisfaction (LS)-a primary SWB conception-that is expected to occur with the onset of illness. The five general categories of illnesses studied were cancer, cardiovascular disease, thyroid disease, arthritis, and infectious disease. RESULTS: There was wide disparity in the monetary values of the different illnesses. Some illnesses had relatively high monetary value compared to persons' mean income, indicating the high value of good health and of programs that aim to prevent the emergence of illnesses or abate their negative impact on people's well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The SWB valuation approach can be used to estimate illnesses' monetary value and thus can contribute to the design of health policies related to resource allocation and compensation, and revenue-generating schemes. OBJETIVOS: Explicar e ilustrar el uso del enfoque del bienestar subjetivo (BS) como metodología alternativa para evaluar la salud mediante la estimación del valor monetario de cinco categorías de enfermedades en Costa Rica y promover investigaciones comparativas sobre las ventajas y las limitaciones de enfoques alternativos para la valoración de la salud. MÉTODOS: Se utilizó el enfoque de valoración del BS para calcular el valor monetario de la enfermedad a partir de los datos empíricos de una encuesta representativa de Costa Rica realizada en 2004. El valor monetario se definió como el ...