Document Detail


Allocating scarce medical resources to the overweight.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  21313869     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Process    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
BACKGROUND: A programmatic research effort investigated how lay people weigh information on hypothetical patients when making decisions regarding the allocation of scarce medical resources. This study is partly replicative and partly innovative, and looks particularly at whether overweight patients would be discriminated against in allocating resources.
AIMS: This study aims to determine the importance given to specific patient characteristics when lay participants are asked to allocate scarce medical resources.
SAMPLE: In all, 156 British adults (82 males, 73 females), aged 19 to 84 years, took part. There were few students.
METHOD: Participants completed a questionnaire requiring them to rank 16 hypothetical patients for access to a kidney dialysis machine.The demographic information presented regarding each hypothetical patient differed on four dimensions: gender, weight, mental health, and religiousness.
RESULTS: There were significant main effects for gender, weight, and mental health; females, patients of normal weight, and the mentally well were ranked the highest priority for access to a kidney dialysis machine. Participants discriminated most regarding the weight of hypothetical patients.
CONCLUSION: Different patient characteristics, unrelated to medical prognoses, particularly being overweight, may have an impact on decisions regarding the use of scarce medical resources.
Authors:
Adrian Furnham; Niroosha Loganathan; Alastair McClelland
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  The Journal of clinical ethics     Volume:  21     ISSN:  1046-7890     ISO Abbreviation:  J Clin Ethics     Publication Date:  2010  
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-02-14     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9114645     Medline TA:  J Clin Ethics     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  346-56     Citation Subset:  E; IM    
Affiliation:
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London. a.furnham@ucl.ac.uk
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