The hedonic procedural effect of traditional medicines

The objective of this paper is to understand whether variations in satisfaction across individuals can be attributed to the hedonic procedural effect of using traditional medicines, in which processes involved with its consumption are as important, if not more important, than measures of self reported health outcome. The study involved rolling out structured household questionnaires in late 2010 in Ghana. The key variables used in analysis include: life satisfaction to proxy utility, a binary variable indicating whether the individual used an accompanying procedure, and EQ5D health outcome measures, alongside control variables. Findings suggest that individuals who used accompanying procedures are more likely to report higher levels of utility than individuals who did not, even after controlling for health outcomes and socioeconomic indicators. The study shows that individuals’ health seeking behaviour should be evaluated using procedural, as well as outcome, utility.