Is ‘end-of-life’ care more valuable?

As health technologies become ever more advanced and expensive, difficult decisions need to be made about which should be provided. This three-year methodological project used Q methodology to first identify and describe societal perspectives on the (relative) value of end-of-life technologies by eliciting the views of both members of the public and experts in relevant fields. In a second phase, Q2S methods were developed to investigate the distribution of those views, including their association with other characteristics in a nationally representative sample of the UK general public.

Aims

This research will use established Q methods to:

  • identify and describe societal perspectives on the (relative) value of end-of-life technologies by eliciting the views of both members of the public and experts in relevant fields
  • develop methods to investigate the distribution of those views, including their association with other characteristics in a nationally representative sample of the UK general public.

Publications

  • Mason H, Collins M, McHugh N, Godwin J, van Exel J, Donaldson C and Baker R (2018). Is “end of life” a special case? Connecting Q with survey methods to measure societal support for views on the value of life‐extending treatments. Health Economics. 27(5): 819-831. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3640
  • McHugh N, van Exel J, Mason H, Godwin J, Collins M, Donaldson C, Baker R (2018). Are life-extending treatments for terminal illnesses a special case? Exploring choices and societal viewpoints. Social Science and Medicine. 198:61-69 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.12.019
  • McHugh N, Baker R, Mason H, Williamson L, van Exel J, Deogaonkar R, Collins M, Donaldson C (2015) Extending life for people with a terminal illness: a moral right and an expensive death? Exploring societal perspectives. BMC Medical Ethics. 16:14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-015-0008-x

Project Lead: Professor Rachel Baker

Project Team: Professor Helen Mason, Dr Neil McHugh, Professor Cam Donaldson, Marissa Collins, Professor Jon Godwin, Dr Laura Williamson, Professor Job van Exel (Erasmus University), Cathy Hutchison (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde)

end of life 300

Q2S Survey approach 1

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Q2S Survey approach 2

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Q2S Survey approach 3

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Q2S Survey approach 4

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