02317cam a2200421 i 4500 rnd000000000048670 RAND 920212s1981 cau b 000 0 eng d 81000331 0833002929 RAND/R-2696-1-HHS (Sirsi) a188125 $25.00 CstmoR CstmoR RA408.5 .M3 1981 Manning, Willard G. author. The status of health in demand estimation : beyond excellent, good, fair, and poor / Willard G. Manning, Joseph P. Newhouse, John E. Ware, Jr. Santa Monica, CA : RAND, 1981. xi, 62 pages ; 28 cm text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia unmediated n rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier volume nc rdacarrier Health insurance experiment series "August 1981." Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-62). This study addresses two issues. (1) What can one gain by using more comprehensive measures of health status in demand estimation than a common single item measure? Would you rate your health as excellent, good, fair, or poor? The authors find that by using multidimensional and less-coarse health status measures they achieve an increase in precision approximately equivalent to a 10 percent increase in sample size. (2) What is the consequence of employing postdiction (i.e., predicting utilization from health status measured after the fact) rather than prediction? Using a simple, but plausible, model, the authors show that such measures cause the estimates to be inconsistent; the direction of the inconsistency generally cannot be signed a priori. Empirically the direction is generally away from zero. Also available on the internet via WWW in PDF format. Description based on print version record. Health status indicators. Health surveys. Medical care Utilization. Newhouse, Joseph P. author. Ware, John E. author. Rand Corporation. United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Online Access http://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R2696-1/ 599865 599865