The Effect of Private Attitudes on Public Policy

Abstract

The quantitative use of patients' attitudes in medicine has thus far been limited to decisions involving either treatment alternatives or the use or nonuse of a particular diagnostic test. Preference theory has not been applied either to the use of screening tests or to the development of large-scale health-related public policy decisions. In this paper we have, in a prototypical fashion, analyzed the effect patient attitudes have on a public policy decision faced by many countries today--whether or not to institute a screening program for neural tube defects. We have assessed the attitudes of 338 prospective parents toward many of the sequelae expected from the introduction, or lack thereof, of the alpha-fetoprotein screening program--induced abortion from amniocentesis, elective abortion, and the birth of a defective child. Using these data and information collected by the United Kingdom study on alpha-fetoprotein, we have estimated the proportion of patients coming to genetic counseling who would benefit from the availability of a screening program for neural tube defects.