A Comparison of the Standard Gamble (SG) and the Time Trade-Off (TTO) Methods

Globally, no country can offer all the health care that may be perceived to be of more benefit, hence the need to establish priorities. Generally, it is agreeable that the effect on a population health status that is impacted by unconventional resource utilization must be taken care of when setting these priorities despite the lacking consensus on how to do this. Many methods have been developed to measure utilities of health states. However, the standard gamble (SG) and the time trade-off (TTO) are the two broadly utilized methods in eliciting health state valuations (Dolan, Gudex, Kind and Williams, 1996). This paper compares and contrasts these two methods of health valuation and suggests the most appropriate method for wider use.