Feasibility of a Health-Utility Approach to Quantifying Noneconomic Losses from Personal Injury

Abstract

There is wide agreement that existing approaches to valuing noneconomic losses from personal injury lack coherence. “Health-utility” measurement—an approach developed in health economics for valuing health outcomes in public health and medicine—holds considerable promise for bringing greater rationality and consistency to assessments of injury-related noneconomic loss. However, the feasibility of creating utility measures that are suitable for use in personal injury compensation has not been demonstrated. This study takes that step. We surveyed more than 4,100 members of the general public in Australia to assess people's preferences for a variety of nonfatal “health states.” The health state..