Introduction
Recent years have seen an increasing emphasis from the UK Government on self-care at all levels of health care, from self-management of chronic diseases to self-treatment of minor illnesses. A recent survey in England found that while the majority of respondents said that they already practised self-care for minor illness, barriers to self-care still existed . It is believed that many people continue to consult their GP for conditions that could be safely self-managed. It has been proposed that improvements in self-care could be achieved through modifying access to health services and health information, thus improving uptake and effectiveness of self-care .
Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) have been developed and adapted from the field of marketing to elicit preferences in health care. A specially designed questionnaire presents individuals with choices involving scenarios described in terms of attributes and associated levels. Respondents are asked to choose their preferred option from a number of scenarios combining these attributes at different levels. Analysis yields information on the relative importance of these attributes and measures how respondents trade between them.

Aims

To determine the relative importance of some of the factors (attributes) associated with decision-making processes in the management of minor illness, and if/how people trade between these factors

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Design

Qualitative interviews to identify factors influencing decision-making in minor illness, and a discrete choice experiment to determine their relative importance.

Methods
Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 24 subjects from a random sample of respondents to an earlier population survey based in Scotland . Amongst the topics explored at interview were participants' reasons for practising self-care and/or consulting health professionals, and their opinions on self-care. Content analysis of the interview data yielded numerous factors that appeared to affect participants' decisions to either self-care or consult. From this list, factors that could potentially be influenced through organisation of health services and/or policy were identified and incorporated into a DCE questionnaire. Respondents were asked to identify their preferences for managing a given minor illness scenario (symptoms included headache, fever and aching). This was mailed to 652 individuals, also respondents to the previous survey3, who had agreed to participate in further research.

Results
The questionnaire was administered during November 2005. The attributes identified for inclusion in the DCE were; type of management (consultation with general practitioner, practice nurse or complementary therapist, advice from a community pharmacy or NHS24, self-care and do nothing); time taken to deal with symptoms (including availability of professionals); and costs associated with treatment. Availability of information was also identified as an influencing factor but for design reasons, could not be incorporated into the DCE. This was included as a separate question elsewhere in the questionnaire.
To date, the response rate to the questionnaire is 53% (n=278). Analysis of the DCE using the statistical software STATA is ongoing and the results of the analysis will be presented at the conference.