[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-detail-661160-en":59,"doc-seo-661160-105":80},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":60},{"doc_id":61,"user_id":62,"nickname":63,"user_avatar":64,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":66,"doc_content":67,"file_id":68,"file_url":69,"file_type":70,"file_size":71,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":72,"language":73,"language_code":74,"site_id":75,"html_lang":74,"table_of_contents":76,"faqs":77,"seo_title":78,"seo_description":66,"update_tm":79,"read_time":41},661160,1374410101428,"Boyslovefans","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Health anxiety and patient behavior - Economic model and information avoidance","Economic models of patient decision-making focus on the costs of obtaining care and the physical health benefits that follow. This note develops a model where fears or anxiety about the future, represented by beliefs about next period’s health, enter the patient’s utility. Anxiety may cause patients to avoid doctor visits or other free, available information, but avoidance follows constraints: small problems are never avoided, and under regularity conditions patients will not choose a worse doctor to restrict information.","Journal of Health Economics 22 (2003) 1073–1084  \nHealth anxiety and patient behavior  \nBotond K´´oszegi∗  \nDepartment of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 549 Evans Hall \\#3880, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA  \nReceived 1 August 2002; received in revised form 1 June 2003; accepted 20 June 2003  \nAbstract  \nEconomic models of patient decision-making emphasize the costs of getting medical attention and the improved physical health that results from it. This note builds a model of patient decision-making when fears or anxiety about the future—captured as beliefs about next period’s state of health—also enter the patient’s utility function. Anxiety can lead the patient to avoid doctor’s visits or other easily available information about her health. However, this avoidance cannot take any form: she will never avoid the doctor with small problems, and under regularity conditions she will never goto a bad doctor to limit the information received.  \n© 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.  \nJEL classification: C7; D82; I19  \nKeywords: Health anxiety; Behavior; Economic model  \n1. Introduction  \nEconomic models of patient decision-making emphasize the costs of getting medical attention and the improved physical health that results from it. This is what underlies many of the cost–benefit calculations that compare the value people attach to better health with the costs of medical intervention (Cutler, 2000, for example). Yet medical professionals and patients themselves are often also concerned about the stress patients must undergo when they face a serious health situation. Such stress, based largely on fears about future health, is not only unpleasant, but is thought to influence measurable health outcomes and patient behavior.  \nThis note builds a theoretical model of patients’ anxiety about their health and its consequences for their behavior. The analysis is motivated by medical evidence (reviewed in  \n∗ Corresponding author. Fax: +1-510-642-6615 . [E-mail address:](E-mail address: botond@econ.berkeley.edu)[ botond@econ.berkeley.edu](E-mail address: botond@econ.berkeley.edu) (B. K´´oszegi) .  \n0167-6296/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2003.06.002  \n1074 B. K´´oszegi / Journal of Health Economics 22 (2003) 1073 –1084  \nSection 2) that people often decline to learn free information about their health, and are reluctant to see a doctor with suspicious symptoms. I argue that this behavior is plausibly driven by fears of bad news. Then, following Caplin and Leahy (1999), I model a patient’s fears as arising from her expectations about her future physical condition. Thus, in my model, the patient’s utility function is defined not over physical outcomes as in standard analysis, but instead over beliefs about physical outcomes. The patient can learn free information about her condition, which she can use to choose a more appropriate treatment to undergo or a more fitting lifestyle to adopt. The note explores the types of information avoidance that can occur under these circumstances.  \nSince the patient derives utility directly from her beliefs, she must consider how the information she gathers will affect those beliefs. If she dislikes bad news more than she likes good news (a preference called information aversion), she trades off her fear of bad news with the decision-making value of knowing her state of health. As a result, she might refuse useful information that is very cheap. For example, she might be reluctant to conduct regular self-examinations or go for physicals, even though these are crucial in prevention. At first sight, one might expect that if the medical issue at hand is sufficiently serious, she will choose to fight her fears and learn any cheaply available information. Surprisingly, the opposite is the case in some sense. The note proves that the decision-maker will (almost) never avoid the doctor if the visit is useful and she expects to learn little from it, but may","cbCainG0cpVNWD1t","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainG0cpVNWD1t","pdf",108400,12,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n# Motivating facts","[{\"question\":\"How does the model incorporate health anxiety into patient decision-making?\",\"answer\":\"It treats anxiety as beliefs about next period’s health that directly affect the patient’s utility, rather than utility depending only on physical outcomes.\"},{\"question\":\"Why might patients avoid information or doctor visits in this framework?\",\"answer\":\"Because fears of bad news can outweigh the decision value of learning one’s health state, leading to avoidance of free information and sometimes reluctance to seek care.\"},{\"question\":\"What constraints does the model place on avoidance behavior?\",\"answer\":\"The patient will not avoid the doctor for small problems, and with regularity conditions (holding financial costs constant) anxiety does not induce choosing a worse doctor; the patient goes to the best doctor or not at all.\"}]","Health anxiety and patient behavior - Economic model and information avoidance | PDF",1793158872,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"ok",{"site_id":75,"language":74,"slug":83,"title":65,"keywords":84,"description":66,"schema_data":85,"social_meta":139,"head_meta":141,"extra_data":143,"updated_unix":79},"health-anxiety-and-patient-behavior-economic-model-and-information-avoidance","",{"@graph":86,"@context":138},[87,101,121],{"@type":88,"itemListElement":89},"BreadcrumbList",[90,94,96,99],{"item":91,"name":92,"@type":93,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":95,"name":9,"@type":93,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":97,"name":40,"@type":93,"position":98},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":100,"name":65,"@type":93,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/health-anxiety-and-patient-behavior-economic-model-and-information-avoidance/661160/",{"url":100,"name":65,"@type":102,"image":103,"author":108,"headline":65,"publisher":110,"fileFormat":113,"inLanguage":74,"description":66,"dateModified":114,"datePublished":115,"encodingFormat":113,"isAccessibleForFree":116,"interactionStatistic":117},"DigitalDocument",{"url":104,"@type":105,"width":106,"height":107},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/health-anxiety-and-patient-behavior-economic-model-and-information-avoidance/661160.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":63,"@type":109},"Person",{"url":91,"name":111,"@type":112},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-28",true,{"@type":118,"interactionType":119,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":120},"ViewAction",{"@type":122,"mainEntity":123},"FAQPage",[124,130,134],{"name":125,"@type":126,"acceptedAnswer":127},"How does the model incorporate health anxiety into patient decision-making?","Question",{"text":128,"@type":129},"It treats anxiety as beliefs about next period’s health that directly affect the patient’s utility, rather than utility depending only on physical outcomes.","Answer",{"name":131,"@type":126,"acceptedAnswer":132},"Why might patients avoid information or doctor visits in this framework?",{"text":133,"@type":129},"Because fears of bad news can outweigh the decision value of learning one’s health state, leading to avoidance of free information and sometimes reluctance to seek care.",{"name":135,"@type":126,"acceptedAnswer":136},"What constraints does the model place on avoidance behavior?",{"text":137,"@type":129},"The patient will not avoid the doctor for small problems, and with regularity conditions (holding financial costs constant) anxiety does not induce choosing a worse doctor; the patient goes to the best doctor or not at all.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":100,"og:type":140,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":111,"og:description":66},"article",{"robots":142,"canonical":100},"index,follow",{"doc_id":61,"site_id":75}]