A study recently published in the American Journal of Managed Care found that the general public is willing to to help fund access to future treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) through tax payments.
Some individuals may be willing to pay for novel treatments due to a sense of altruism, meaning that they are open to helping others even when they or their family members will not directly benefit from increased access to care.
Although altruism values have been quantified for several diseases, including COVID-19 and Alzheimer disease, few studies to date have evaluated levels of altruism in the context of rare pediatric diseases.
The study’s authors administered a survey to individuals aged 21 years and older who were not planning to have any children in the future. None of the participants had DMD or had children with DMD. Altruism was quantified as the amount that individuals would be willing to pay in additional taxes to cover the costs of a hypothetical DMD therapy.
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Among the 215 participants, 58.1% were willing to pay between $80 and $90 per month in additional taxes, while 14.0% of respondents were willing to pay less than $10 per month. On average, participants were willing to pay $80.01 yearly, or $6.67 monthly, to cover the costs of a novel treatment.
While participant income was associated with altruism value, participant age, level of education, gender and employment status had no impact on levels of altruism in the study population.
The authors noted that these results may not reflect the actual choices of members of the general public, as participants may have reported that they were willing to pay increased taxes even if this may not truly be the case.
“This [study] underscores the immense compassion that society has for children with DMD and emphasizes the critical role of societal support and empathy in advancing health care management and improving the lives of those living with DMD,” the study’s authors concluded.
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