Time Preferences and Preventive Health Behavior

Background. Many preventive health behaviors involve immediate costs and delayed benefits. Time preference is the extent to which decision makers value future outcomes relative to immediate ones. Consequently, people with future-oriented time preferences should be more likely to adopt preventive measures. The relationship between time preferences and acceptance of a free influenza vaccination was examined. Sample. The participants were 412 corporate employees who were offered free influenza vac cinations at their workplace. Measures. Participants' time preferences were measured in each of two domains: money and health. They also reported on whether they had accepted the influenza vaccination and their beliefs and attitudes about the vaccine. Results. There was a small (OR = 2.38) relationship of vaccination acceptance to monetary time preferences but not to the health time-preference measures. Other var iables, such as perceived effectiveness of the vaccine, were more predictive. Conclu sion. This study provides some evidence of a small relationship between time prefer ences and preventive health behavior. Key words: time preference; decision making; preventive health behavior; influenza vaccine. (Med Decis Making 1999; 19:307-314)

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