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HEOR Africa

Supporting service

Patient and stakeholder preferences

Discrete choice experiments and willingness-to-pay studies that show what patients, health workers and households value — evidence for insurance design, service delivery and workforce policy.

The problem

Policies fail when they ignore what people value. Households decide whether to enrol in insurance, patients decide where to seek care, and health workers decide where to work. Stated-preference methods measure these trade-offs directly, so that premiums, benefit designs, service models and incentive packages are built around real preferences rather than assumptions.

What we deliver

  • Discrete choice experiments

    Design, piloting, fieldwork support and analysis of discrete choice experiments for patients, households and health workers.

  • Willingness-to-pay studies

    Contingent valuation and choice-based estimates of willingness to pay for insurance and services, to inform premium setting.

  • Health workforce preferences

    Evidence on the job attributes that attract and retain health workers in underserved areas.

Methods

  • Qualitative attribute development
  • Experimental design
  • Mixed logit and latent class models
  • Contingent valuation
  • Willingness-to-pay and uptake simulations

How we work

  1. 01

    Identify what matters

    Develop attributes and levels from literature, interviews and focus groups with the people whose choices you need to understand.

  2. 02

    Design and pilot

    Build an efficient experimental design and pilot it to check comprehension and validity.

  3. 03

    Field and analyse

    Support data collection and estimate preferences, heterogeneity and willingness to pay.

  4. 04

    Translate into policy

    Simulate how uptake or satisfaction would change under different policy options.

Every engagement follows our reproducible pipeline with three expert sign-off gates.

Typical deliverables

  • Study protocol and experimental design
  • Survey instrument and analysis code
  • Report with preference weights, willingness-to-pay estimates and policy simulations

All free resources

Frequently asked questions

What is a discrete choice experiment?

A survey method in which respondents choose between alternatives described by several attributes, such as cost, distance or quality of care. Their choices show how much each attribute matters and, where cost is included, their willingness to pay.

When is a willingness-to-pay study useful?

When setting insurance premiums or user fees, or when you need to know how demand would respond to different prices or benefit designs.

How long does a preference study take?

Typically 10–16 weeks, including design, piloting, fieldwork and analysis.

Discuss your question with us

Tell us what you need and we will reply within one business day with next steps — or book a 20-minute call.

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