Many of the benefits of substance abuse treatment are societal and accrue to the public rather than to the treatment client. These benefits, such as reduced crime, higher productivity, fewer physical conditions to be addressed by public health care, are not easily assigned values on a common scale such as the QALY (quality adjusted life year), increasingly used in developing health policy. This paper presents the results of creating and testing a measure that quantifies these non-dollar benefits of substance abuse treatment. The study used a time-tradeoff survey to measure the value placed on each area of quality of life potentially improved by substance abuse treatment outcomes. Value was measured by the number of years out of 10 years of life left that knowledgeable consumers were willing to trade to avoid problems in seven different outcome domains. Multi-attribute utility theory was used to calculate a composite utility score. Analysis demonstrates that 99 percent of the benefits from substance abuse treatment was realized by others in society than the treated individual.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session the participant will be able to understand how a valuation method for benefits of substance abuse treatment was created and will be able to apply it to their own ASI data on substance abuse treatment outcomes
Keywords: Substance Abuse Treatment, Outcomes Research
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.