{"title":"Evaluating OPUF's Role in Health State Valuations: Strengths, Limitations, and Comparative Analysis.","authors":"Afschin Gandjour","doi":"10.1002/hec.70027","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines the Online Elicitation of Personal Utility Functions (OPUF) method as a novel approach for health state valuation. While OPUF offers a structured, modular alternative to traditional methods, it also presents notable challenges. Chief among these is its reliance on compositional trade-offs between health dimensions (e.g., pain, mobility, anxiety), which may inadequately reflect how individuals experience health holistically. Additionally, OPUF's use of numerical rating scales does not guarantee that resulting utility values exhibit interval properties-a requirement for robust interpretation in economic evaluations. To contextualize OPUF within the broader landscape of valuation methods, this article introduces a classification scheme outlining alternative approaches and their respective trade-offs in terms of precision, cognitive burden, and feasibility.</p>","PeriodicalId":12847,"journal":{"name":"Health economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health economics","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.70027","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article examines the Online Elicitation of Personal Utility Functions (OPUF) method as a novel approach for health state valuation. While OPUF offers a structured, modular alternative to traditional methods, it also presents notable challenges. Chief among these is its reliance on compositional trade-offs between health dimensions (e.g., pain, mobility, anxiety), which may inadequately reflect how individuals experience health holistically. Additionally, OPUF's use of numerical rating scales does not guarantee that resulting utility values exhibit interval properties-a requirement for robust interpretation in economic evaluations. To contextualize OPUF within the broader landscape of valuation methods, this article introduces a classification scheme outlining alternative approaches and their respective trade-offs in terms of precision, cognitive burden, and feasibility.
期刊介绍：
This Journal publishes articles on all aspects of health economics: theoretical contributions, empirical studies and analyses of health policy from the economic perspective. Its scope includes the determinants of health and its definition and valuation, as well as the demand for and supply of health care; planning and market mechanisms; micro-economic evaluation of individual procedures and treatments; and evaluation of the performance of health care systems.
Contributions should typically be original and innovative. As a rule, the Journal does not include routine applications of cost-effectiveness analysis, discrete choice experiments and costing analyses.
Editorials are regular features, these should be concise and topical. Occasionally commissioned reviews are published and special issues bring together contributions on a single topic. Health Economics Letters facilitate rapid exchange of views on topical issues. Contributions related to problems in both developed and developing countries are welcome.
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