面对坏消息而生存: 缺乏治疗选择的健康信息
Surviving Bad News: Health Information without Treatment Options
AER: Insights · 2025 · [{"name": "Alberto Ciancio", "affiliation": ["Adam Smith Institute", "University of Glasgow"]}, {"name": "Fabrice Kämpfen", "affiliation": ["University College Dublin"]}, {"name": "Hans‐Peter Kohler", "affiliation": ["University of Pennsylvania"]}, {"name": "Rebecca Thornton", "affiliation": ["Baylor University"]}]
中文摘要
当危及生命的疾病尚无可用治疗方法时, 提供个人健康信息可能导致绝望情绪或宿命论行为, 从而造成负面的健康结果。我们利用马拉维的一项实验记录了这一可能性: 该实验在抗逆转录病毒治疗尚不可得的背景下, 随机化了受试者获知 HIV 检测结果的激励。实验六年后, 在 HIV 阳性感染者中, 获知自身感染状态者的存活概率比未获知者低 23 个百分点, 且该效应在 15 年后依然持续。收到 HIV 阳性诊断导致了更具风险的健康行为、更高的焦虑水平, 以及更高的贴现率。
Abstract
When there is no treatment available for a life-threatening disease, providing personal health information could lead to despair or fatalistic behaviors resulting in negative health outcomes. We document this possibility utilizing an experiment in Malawi that randomized incentives to learn HIV testing results in a context where anti-retroviral treatment was not yet available. Six years after the experiment, among HIV+s, those who learned their status were 23 percentage points less likely to survive than those who did not, with effects persisting after 15 years. Receiving an HIV+ diagnosis resulted in riskier health behaviors, greater anxiety, and higher discount rates.