The views of physicians and politicians concerning age‐related prioritisation in healthcare

Abstract

2 ABSTRACT Purpose of this paperThe aim of this study was to describe the view of age-related prioritisation in health care among physicians and healthcare politicians and to compare their views regarding gender and age. MethodologySwedish physicians (n=390) and politicians (n=310), mean age 52 years, answered an electronic questionnaire concerning age-related priority setting in healthcare. The questionnaire had fixed response alternatives with possibility of adding comments. FindingsA majority of the participants thought that age should not influence prioritisation, although more physicians than politicians thought that younger patients should be prioritised. There were also significant differences concerning their views on lifestyle-related diseases and on who should make decisions concerning both vertical and horizontal prioritisation. The comments indicated that the politicians referred to ethical principles as a basis for their standpoints while the physicians often referred to the importance of biological rather than chronological age. Research limitationsWeb-based surveys as a method has its limitations as biased samples and biased returns could cause major problems, such as limited control over the drop-outs. The sample in this study was, however, judged to be representative. 3 Practical implicationsThe results indicate that supplementary guiding principles concerning prioritisation in healthcare are needed in order to facilitate decision-making concerning resource allocation on a local level. The value of the paperThis paper adds important knowledge about decision makers' views on age-related priorities in healthcare, thus contributing to scientific base for prioritisation in healthcare and the ongoing debate in society.

Citizens' preferences on healthcare expenditure allocation: evidence from Greece

“…Other demographic factors such as job, age, gender and marital status do partly associate and play a significant role. These findings are consistent with other studies where these criteria for prioritizing medical services have also controversial results . However, other findings indicate that personal characteristics such as gender, age, education are context specific of choices in health.…”

Decision makers’ experiences of prioritisation and views about how to finance healthcare costs

“…Most of the politicians (61 %) but only 28 % of the physicians thought that regional healthcare politicians should have the greatest influence. When politicians and physicians were asked about their views concerning old age as a criterion for prioritisation, the results indicated that the former referred to ethical principles as a basis for their standpoints while the latter often referred to the importance of biological rather than chronological age [9]. This might indicate that the two categories of decision makers base their decisions on different premises.…”

“…In most of the questions the participants were given the chance to comment on the question and/or their response. This paper presents the responses to 11 questions concerning resource allocation (Tables 2-4, Figure 1), the answers to the questions concerning age-related prioritisation have been presented elsewhere [9]. The questionnaire was originally developed based on a review of the literature and on the three ethical principles: the principle of human dignity; the principle of need and solidarity and the cost-efficiency principle.…”

Bedside healthcare rationing dilemmas: a survey from Croatia

“…The second factor highlights the aged-based rationing. Although it can be framed within a more general principle of favoring the worst-off, we decided to keep it apart, mainly because favoring younger patients is one of the most debated discrimination factors in healthcare accessing (McGough et al, 2005;Werntoft and Edberg, 2009;Reese et al, 2010;Callahan, 2012;Morreim et al, 2014). Finally, achieving efficiency was depicted by the preferences toward the cheapest and effective treatments, as well as those that ensure future savings for the health system.…”