A quality of life tool kit in chronic venous disorders

Phlebolymphology. 2014;21(3):152-160 – read full article

Robert LAUNOIS
REES France, 48, rue d’Assas,
75006, Paris, France

Abstract

Individual preferences are now at the center of the medical decision-making process. Different experimental methods are used to determine preferences.  Psychometricians use direct observation of a subject’s reaction in a particular  pathological situation: patients are asked to arrange the intensity of the impacts  on numerical ordinal scales, but an actual metrical measure is not yet available.  Traditionally, economists believe that in a market, only the consumer’s choices  enable us to estimate his or her level of satisfaction. In the health care field,  where market mechanisms are not fully operational, they tend to extract patient  preferences through forced choices between hypothetical health states. A real  metrical measure is thus obtained. The objective of this article is to exhibit these  2 methods, psychometric and economic, and show how they have been implemented in medical research.