WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREVENTIVE HEALTH-CARE

In most forms of evaluation the benefits of preventive health care are narrowly defined in terms of reductions in future morbidity and morta lity. Thus it is normally assumed that it is the final health gains al one which bear utility. This discounts the possibility that individual s may derive utility from the process of health care and other outcome s as well as the end health states. Attributes such as anxiety, reassu rance, autonomy, regret and hope provide potential benefits or disbene fits in addition to health gains. This paper explores the concept of p rocess utility in the specific context of preventive goods. Characteri stics such as information, awareness and autonomy are examined for hiv e preventive goods-hip protectors and mammographic screening. If indiv iduals trade off process attributes for final health outcomes, then to ignore process utility may lead to a sub-optimal allocation of resour ces. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.