Poster presentations 0316 Patients’ perceived insurance coverage, a mismatch with factual dental insurance coverage Abraham D. (private person; research undertaken during employment at Katholieke Universiteit Ni jmegen, Bantry, Ir eland) Preliminary results have been present ed in poster format at the confer- ence of the international Health Economics Association (iHEA, San Francisco, 2003). Background: The effect of insurance on dental utilization is mediated by patients’ knowledge of coverage but the published literature does not explore this relationship. Study ob jective: To study the level of insurance awareness in regularly at tending adult dental patients in the Netherlands. Design: This study uses a patient questionnaire and dental utilization data to measure knowledge of reimbursement for periodontology, resto- rations and crowns/bridges. Results: Reimbursement for periodontics, restorations and crowns & bridges is known correctly to 27.2%, 38.5% and 21.1% respectively. Pub- licly insured seem less aware of insurance coverage for crowns & bridges compared to restorations and periodontics. Pri vate den tal patients have equal awareness for restorations, periodontics and crowns & bridges. Conclusions: The Dutch have poor understanding of their dental insur- ance benefits. Therefore dental utilization research must include both insurance status and a measure of insurance awareness to gain insight in the relationship between insurance coverage and utilization. 0570 Cost of Cervix Cancer Treatment in Hungary Ács N. (Obstetrical and Gynecological Clinic of Semmelweis Medical University, Budapest, Hungary) Brandtmüller Á., Nagy L., Kovács F. , Erdész D. Discussion/Results: In disease areas where several different disease stag- es and alternative treatment options exits (i.e. cancers, CNS disorders) the costing issue plays a pivotal role in any cost effectiveness analysis. The ob jective of this paper is to identify and quantify the different cost elements in the treatment of cer vix cancer in CINI to CIS and in IA1, IA2,IB, IIA, IIB, III, IV FIGO stag es. The need to access the cost effec- tiveness of the national cer vix screening program “Johan Bela Nation- al Program of the Decade of Health” and the market entry of new HPV vaccines in 2006 gives further importance to the issue. In our study cer- vix cancer treatment cost were compared from two separate sources: i. data from Social Security data base, ii. Delphi panel constructed from 20 Hungarian key opinion leaders. From the So cial Security data base inter vention costs (outpatient, inpatient care and drug cost) were collect- ed based on BNO and anonym patient identification number on yearly aggregate level. As a limitation no stage specific costs are record ed in the database. In the Delphi panel, with the use of Hyper Point 2003 voting system, the distribution of the different inter ventions were assessed, and con verted to cost using the actual ONO and HBCS HUF equivalents. 0113 Assessing self-assessed health data Ahn N. (FEDEA, Madrid, Spain) Discussion/Re sults: Many studies have used self-assessed health data to examine the determinants of health status and the effects of health status on broad areas of human behavior. Given sub jectivity and possi- ble measurement errors imbedded in self-assessed health data, we exam- ine their validity and usefulness using the data from European Commu- nity Household Panel. Our analysis pro vides clear evidence against care- less use of self-assessed health status sur vey data. The strongest case is cross-country comparisons of self-assessed health status and disabili- ty rate. Age-specific health measures based on self-assessed health sta- tus vary enormously between countries and often country rankings are hard to believe, thus suggesting the importance of language, cul ture and social en vironment in self-assessed health data. When we compare self- assessed health status across regions within a country (Spain), we find that regional differences are consistent with other measures of health although the regional variations are also larger than one would expect. Self-assessed health measures are also sensitive to the institutional set- tings such as pension system. For example, in Spain some retired peo- ple who receive disability pension seem to declare worse health status than real to jus tify their pension eligibility. 0446 Inequality in health care use among older people in the United Kingdom: evidence from the British House hold Panel Survey Allin S. (London School of Economics Health and Social Care, London, UK) Masseria C., Mossialos E. Discussion/Results: This study in vestigates income-related inequal i- ties in GP, hospital, specialist and dentist care among over 65s in the UK between 1997 and 2003 using data from the BHPS. The probability of a visit to the GP, specialist, dentist or admission to hospi tal was pre- dicted using multiple random effects logistic regression models. Con- centration indices were calculat ed based on indirect standardization approach; a horizontal inequity index equal to zero implies that after controlling for differences in need across income groups, indi viduals have equal probability of ser vice use, regardless of income. The results indicate that indi viduals on lower income are more likely to visit a GP, specialist and hospital than the bet ter-off, with the re verse for den tal vis- its. After ad justing for differences in need (health status) with income, a significant pro-rich inequity is found for all ser vice areas, particular- ly specialist and dental care, even when pri vate sector care was exclud- ed. While a recent anal ysis among the general British population found health ser vice use to b e largely equitable (with the exception of dental care), it appears that inequalities may increase among the older age groups. As the highest consumers of health care, and with potential- ly more barriers to access, more attention should be paid to existing inequities among this age group. 0154 Risk of Own Death and the Death of Oth ers Andersson H. (Swedish National Road & Transport Research Institute (VTI), Solna, Sweden) Lundborg P. Discussion/Results: The purpose of this study is to examine differences between Swedish indi viduals’ perception of their own mortality risk and ob jective risk measures, to analyze the magnitude of any risk bias, and to examine indi viduals’ risk perception formation. Risk perception for- mation is analyzed in the Bayesian learning framework. Two different Eur J Health Econom 2006 · [Suppl 1] 7:105–138 DOI 10.1007/s10198-006-0369-7 © Springer Medizin Verlag 2005 Eur J Health Econom Suppl 1 · 2006 | S105 See next page
