Participant preferences for an Aboriginal-specific fall prevention program: Measuring the value of culturally-appropriate care.

backgroundCulturally-specific services are central to efforts to improve the health of Aboriginal Australians. Few empirical studies have demonstrated the value of such services relative to mainstream alternatives.

objectiveTo assess the preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) of participants for attending a class and the relative importance of transport, cost and cultural-appropriateness in the choices made by participants.

designA discrete choice experiment (DCE) was conducted alongside a study of a culturally-specific fall-prevention service. Attributes that were assessed were out-of-pocket costs, whether transport was provided and whether the class was Aboriginal-specific. Choices of participants were modelled using panel-mixed logit methods.

results60 patients completed the DCE. Attending a service was strongly preferred over no service (selected 99% of the time). Assuming equivalent efficacy of fall-prevention programs, participants indicated a preference for services that were culturally-specific (OR 1.25 95% CI: 1.00-1.55) and incurred lower out-of-pocket participant costs (OR 1.19 95% CI 1.11-1.27). The provision of transport did not have a statistically significant influence on service choice (p = 0.57). DISCUSSION AND

conclusionsThis represents the first published DCE in the health field examining preferences amongst an Aboriginal population. The results empirically demonstrate the value of the culturally-specific element of a program has to this cohort and the potential that stated-preference methods can have in incorporating the preferences of Aboriginal Australians and valuing cultural components of health services. NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY: As the majority of the NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is Aboriginal (97.2%), this population will be referred to as 'Aboriginal' in this manuscript.