Abstract

SHUMBA, Darlies; KRISTIAN, Hansen; DE WEERDT, Willy  and  DE COCK, Paul. Preferences of urban Zimbabweans for health and life lived at different ages. Bull World Health Organ [online]. 2002, vol.80, n.3, pp. 204-209. ISSN 0042-9686.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0042-96862002000300006.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the age-weighting preferences of urban Zimbabweans in relation to health care priorities. METHOD: A total of 67 randomly selected residents of a high-density area of Harare participated in the study. Participants were asked "person trade-off" questions to determine their preferences in terms of the numbers of people of various ages who would be saved from death and from suffering a year of ill-health relative to the number of 30-year-olds who would be saved from these eventualities. FINDINGS: The responses indicate that the value of averting a year of ill-health was judged greatest for 15-year-olds and was equal for people aged 1, 30, and 45 years. The value of averting a death primarily reflected the expected years of life lost, but the influence of age-weighting was evident in that 15 years was the most highly valued age. CONCLUSION: Although the age-weighting curves did not correspond exactly with the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) age-weights, Zimbabweans showed a preference for saving the lives of young adults. The GBD age-weights should be used to determine the disability-adjusted life years lost in the Zimbabwean population.

Keywords : Cost of illness; Life expectancy; Quality-adjusted life years; Age factors; Value of life; Choice behavior; Zimbabwe.