A comparison of willingness to pay to prevent child maltreatment deaths in Ecuador and the United States

Abstract

Abstract:Estimating the benefits of preventing child maltreatment (CM) is essential for policy makers to determine whether there are significant returns on investment from interventions to prevent CM. The aim of this study was to estimate the benefits of preventing CM deaths in an Ecuadorian population, and to compare the results to a similar study in a US population. The study used the contingent valuation method to elicit respondents' willingness to pay (WTP) for a 1 in 100,000 reduction in the risk of CM mortality. After adjusting for differences in purchasing power, the WTP to prevent the CM mortality risk reduction in the Ecuador population was $237 and the WTP for the same risk reduction in the US population was $175. In the pooled analysis, WTP for a reduction in CM mortality was significantly impacted by country (p = 0.03), history of CM (p = 0.007), payment mechanism (p < 0.001), confidence in response (p = 0.014), and appropriateness of the payment mechanism (p < 0.001). These findings suggest that estimating benefits from one culture may not be transferable to another, and that low-and middle-income countries, such as Ecuador, may be better served by developing their own benefits estimates for use in future benefit-cost analyses of interventions designed to prevent CM.

Using Economic Evaluation to Hasten Health Equity

“…For example, a study about child maltreatment posed the following scenario: ''If you were presented with an intervention or program with evidence of effectiveness that would reduce child mortality related to violence, how much would you pay to have that program in your community?'' 17 Thus, the logic of the method is that respondents are asked to think about a public good as if it could be purchased in a marketplace. 18 Then, the amount of money an individual would pay to avoid premature death is used to estimate the value of a statistical life (VSL).…”

Willingness to pay for physician services in Ukraine and other central and eastern European countries : application of stated preferences techniques to the assessment of patient charges

“…That is these studies seek to quantify benefits that would be gained from a provision of a certain service or from the improvements in the quality or access characteristics of these services (e.g. Regier et al, 2012;Naik-Panvelkar et al, 2012;Kjaer et al, 2012;Glenngard et al, 2012;Gidengil et al, 2012;Corso et al, 2013;Brandt et al, 2012). Some studies, however, are rather cautious even in interpreting the WTP estimates as benefit gains and simply use them as an indication of relative preferences (e.g.…”

“…Most applications of CV use holistic evaluation principles (e.g. Whitty et al, 2013;Shafie and Hassali, 2013;Loh and Shapiro, 2013;Hansen et al, 2013, Corso et al, 2013, Wang and Hong, 2012Sogaard et al, 2012;Lang et al, 2012;Havet et al, 2012;Gyrd-Hansen and Kjaer, 2012;Ethier et al, 2012;Dixon et al, 2012;Brandt et al, 2012;Bobinac et al, 2012b;Asgray, 2012). This leads to the idea, that the choice of CV technique is driven by the aim of obtaining holistic values.…”

“…Gyrd-Hansen & Kjaer, 2012;Bobinac et al, 2012aBobinac et al, , 2012b, prevention or care programs to specific groups (e.g. Corso et al, 2013;Loh & Shapiro, 2013) or for insurance packages (e.g. Shafie & Hassali, 2013).…”

“…Regier et al, 2012;Sadique et al, 2013), decrease in symptoms or adverse effects (e.g. Brandt et al, 2012;Corso et al, 2013;Ethier et al, 2012), changes in functional status (e.g. Gyrd-Hansen & Kjaer, 2012), days of sickness and absence from the job (e.g.…”