Practical Issues in Conducting a Discrete Choice Experiment

This chapter walks the reader through the stages of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) application drawing on concepts introduced in Chapters 1 and 2. A case study eliciting women’s preferences for prenatal screening is used to illustrate the points (Ryan et al., 2005). It should be noted that this data was collected several years ago, and therefore adopted old methods of experimental design. The sample size is also small.We have chosen it because it demonstrates nicely the many potential uses of a DCE, it addressed a policy-relevant question at the time, and it represents one of the few studies in health economics where the scientists (geneticists) worked with the evaluators (economists) and implementers (obstetricians) to look at development, evaluation and implementation of prenatal screening programmes.