Is silence golden? A test of the incorporation of the effects of ill‐health on income and leisure in health state valuations
研究检验人们在评估健康状态时，是否会自动考虑疾病对收入和休闲的影响。结果显示多数人未考虑收入影响，但考虑了休闲影响，提示沉默的测量可能导致重复计算或忽略真实成本。
The objective of the present study was to evaluate whether people include the effects of ill-health on income and leisure in quality of life valuation when the measure is silent on both. A convenience sample of 20 health professionals had to rate a health status on a visual analogue scale (VAS) without being explicitly asked to consider the effects of ill-health on income and leisure. A majority of respondents (60%) does not consider income effects and 75% does consider the effects on leisure. Explicitly asking respondents to incorporate these effects lowers the valuation. Our results indicate that whatever separation between costs and effects is preferred, using quality of life measures which are silent on income and leisure, leads to either double-counting or ignoring real costs or effects.