Turning the spotlight on experimental design in discrete choice experiments – a focus on pragmatic approaches in health.

Abstract

Stated preference techniques including the discrete choice experiment (DCE) provide a fundamental and increasingly popular method to evaluate the trade-offs people are willing to make between different characteristics of health and health care [1]. The development of discrete choice studies is an iterative process involving a number of dependent stages [2]. As a consequence, the implementation of these studies demands a range of diverse skills, spanning both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Perhaps the most elusive of these skills for many researchers and practitioners has been experimental design, that is, “the process of generating specific combinations of attributes and levels that respondents evaluate in choice questions” [3].