Background: Regular physical activity in patients with heart failure (HF) improves physical capacity and quality of life, and may reduce health care utilization. One low-cost effective physical activity intervention to increase exercise capacity is exergaming. Exploring patients’ willingness to pay (WTP) for treatments/interventions is a way to obtain a monetary value for the health consequences of an intervention. This can further be used in economic evaluations.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe patients´ WTP for an exergame intervention and to determine factors influencing the WTP.

Methods: This is a substudy of the Swedish cohort of the HF-Wii study (evaluating the effect of exergaming on exercise capacity in patients with HF; clinicaltrial.gov NCT01785121) including 34 patients who finished the 1-year follow-up. Structured telephone interviews were conducted focusing on WTP for the exergame intervention they received during the study including an exergame platform, an introduction lesson, installation of the exergame computer, and telephone follow-ups, and with an estimated cost of ∼€440 per patient. The WTP methodology used was adjusted for this specific study.

Patients were also asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the intervention on a Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) from 0-10. In addition, information on background variables and income was collected during the interview, while data on six minute walk test (6MWT) and quality of life was retrieved from previous data collection in the main study.

Results: In total, 29 patients with HF participated in this substudy, mean age 68±9 years, 69% males, and with a mean household disposable income/month of ∼€2700 (±1360). Ten patients (34.5%) had a clinically significant effect of the exergaming and improved more than 30 meters on the 6MWT.

The average WTP for the exergame intervention was ∼€160 (range €0-580). Most patients were satisfied with the exergame intervention and the median score was 8 on the NRS. The satisfaction level was significantly related to WTP (r_s=0.468, p=0.012). Patients with higher satisfaction levels were willing to pay more (€210±165) for the exergame intervention than those with lower satisfaction levels (€60±70), p=0.015. Income, changes in 6MWT, and quality of life showed no significant relationship to WTP.

Conclusions: The WTP for an exergame intervention varied largely in patients with HF despite high satisfaction level with the intervention. The satisfaction level was the only factor influencing patients´ WTP. On average, patients were willing to pay about one-third of the cost of the exergame intervention. Future studies should focus on the cost-effectiveness of this intervention.