Households’ willingness to pay for a motorcycle helmet in Hanoi, Vietnam

BackgroundVietnam's 2007 comprehensive motorcycle helmet policy increased helmet use from about 30% of riders to about 93%. We aimed to simulate the effect that this legislation might have on: (a) road traffic deaths and non-fatal injuries, (b) individuals’ direct acute care injury treatment costs, (c) individuals’ income losses from missed work and (d) individuals’ protection against medical impoverishment.Methods and findingsWe used published secondary data from the literature to perform a retrospective extended cost-effectiveness analysis simulation study of the policy. Our model indicates that in the year following its introduction a helmet policy employing standard helmets likely prevented approximately 2200 deaths and 29 000 head injuries, saved individuals US$18 million in acute care costs and averted US$31 million in income losses. From a societal perspective, such a comprehensive helmet policy would have saved $11 000 per averted death or $830 per averted non-fatal injury. In terms of financial risk protection, traffic injury is so expensive to treat that any injury averted would necessarily entail a case of catastrophic health expenditure averted.ConclusionsThe high costs associated with traffic injury suggest that helmet legislation can decrease the burden of out-of-pocket payments and reduced injuries decrease the need for access to and coverage for treatment, allowing the government and individuals to spend resources elsewhere. These findings suggest that comprehensive motorcycle helmet policies should be adopted by low-income and middle-income countries where motorcycles are pervasive yet helmet use is less common.

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“… 6 20 At that time, the majority of Vietnamese households were willing to pay the average market price of US$17 for a standard helmet. 21 …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Helmet regulation in Vietnam: impact on health, equity and medical impoverishment

et al. 2016

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“…In some parts of Thailand, helmets can be purchased at a subsidised cost, approximately one third of that in Laos (Khon Kaen Hospital, 2010). Such financial support might help reduce the perceived costs of helmets and increase the willingness to pay for them (Pham, Le Thi, Petrie, Adams, & Doran, 2008).…”

Section: Student Pillion Ridermentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadside observation of secondary school students’ commuting to school in Vientiane, Laos

Ichikawa

Nakahara

Phommachanh

et al. 2013

International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion

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To investigate modes of secondary school students' commuting to school and their unsafe driving practices in Laos, we conducted a roadside observation in front of the gate of a selected school in central Vientiane in December 2011. Of the 544 students observed, the majority came to school on foot (43%), followed by motorcycle (36%), and bicycle (14%). Of the 195 students who commuted by motorcycle, 45 (23%) drove it themselves. Of the 150 students who commuted as pillion riders, 35 (23%) were driven by a student or another child driver. The prevalence of helmet use among students (3%) was much lower than adults (66%). It was common for adult drivers to wear a helmet but to leave student pillion riders unhelmeted on the same motorcycle. Carrying two or three pillion riders was also often observed. The study revealed the necessity for measures to promote safe travel to school.

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“…Dichotomous choice questions can be broken down into single- or double-bounded questions, where a double-bounded question means that, after being given an initial ‘yes or no’ WTP price, as in a single-bounded question, the respondent is then given a second WTP option dependent on his first answer [32]. The most popular question format of the 22 papers is an open-ended question (48%) [11, 15, 16, 19, 27, 29, 30, 33, 47], followed by dichotomous choice [1, 15, 17, 26, 40, 47, 54, 55] (35%), and payment card [33–37]. Two of the papers use both open-ended questions and dichotomous choice [15, 47].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to value safety in economic evaluations in health care? A review of applications in different sectors

2019

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Improving (feelings of) safety is an important goal of many health systems, especially in the context of recurrent threats of pandemics, and natural disasters. Measures to improve safety should be cost-effective, raising the issue of how to value safety. This is a complex task due to the intangible nature of safety. We aim to synthesize the current empirical literature on the evaluation of safety to gain insights into current methodological practices. After a thorough literature search in two databases for papers from the fields of life sciences, social sciences, physical sciences and health sciences that empirically measure the value of increasing safety, 33 papers were found and summarized. The focus of the research was to investigate the methodologies used. Attention was also paid to theoretical papers and the methodological issues they present, and the relationship between safety and three categories of covariate results: individual characteristics, individual relationship with risk, and study design. The field of research in which the most papers were found was environmental economics, followed by transportation and health. There appeared to be two main methods for valuating safety: Contingent Valuation and Discrete Choice Experiments, within which there were also differences—for example the use of open or dichotomous choice questions. Overall this paper finds that there still appears to be a long way ahead before consensus can be attained about a standardised methodology for valuating safety. Safety valuation research would benefit from learning from previous experience and the development of more standardised methods.

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Households’ willingness to pay for a motorcycle helmet in Hanoi, Vietnam

Cited by 17 publications

References 5 publications

Helmet regulation in Vietnam: impact on health, equity and medical impoverishment

Helmet regulation in Vietnam: impact on health, equity and medical impoverishment

Roadside observation of secondary school students’ commuting to school in Vientiane, Laos

How to value safety in economic evaluations in health care? A review of applications in different sectors

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