Table 1 Characteristics of included studies

Finlayson et al. (1999) Patient preferences for location of care; Medical Care, Vol. 37 (2) p.: 204–209 /USA

Scenario: hypothetical (participants should imagine that they had potentially resectable pancreas cancer)

Method: discrete choice experiment (DCE)

Setting: hospital providing medical care to primarily male veterans from rural locations

Inclusion:

- consecutive sample of a clinic’s inpatients and outpatients who were awaiting elective surgery

Exclusion:

- inability to discuss operative risk due to impairment of mental capacity or high preoperative anxiety

Local: not reported

Regional: 4-h drive

Landau et al. (2013) Determination of patient preferences for location of elective abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery; Vascular and endovascular surgery 47 (4) p.: 288–293/ Canada

Scenario: hypothetical (participants had abdominal aortic aneurysm [AAA] but no scheduled surgery in the immediate future)

Method: discrete choice experiment (DCE)

Setting: university-affiliated medical centre providing vascular services for the surrounding population of 1.9 million people

Inclusion:

- patients with infra-renal, asymptomatic AAA (4–5 cm largest diameter)

-living ≥1-h drive to hospital

-patients not scheduled to undergo AAA surgery in the near future

Exclusion:

not reported

Local: 30 min’ drive

Regional: 2-h drive

Chang et al. (2004) Parental preferences regarding hospitals for children surgery: A trade-off between travel distance and potential outcome improvement; Canadian Journal of Cardiology. 20 (9) p.:877–882/ USA

Scenario: hypothetical (children of participants referred to hospital because of heart murmur or chest pain but no heart abnormality was determined)

Participants should imagine their children needed heart surgery. Afterward, parents should imagine having surgery and should make the decision for themselves)

Method: discrete choice experiment (DCE)

Setting: paediatric cardiology clinic, primarily serving the indigent population (38% uninsured)

Inclusion:

- parents or adult primary caregivers of children referred to paediatric cardiology without upcoming surgery

Exclusion:

- determined cardiac abnormalities

Local: 10 min’ drive

Regional:

1st scenario: 2-h drive

2nd scenario: 4-h drive

Shalowitz et al. (2018) Are patients willing to travel for better ovarian cancer care?; Gynecologic Oncology 148 (2018) p:42–48/ USA

Scenario: hypothetical (participants should imagine they have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and initial cancer treatment [preoperative visit, hospitalisation for surgery, postoperative visit] should start)

Method: discrete choice experiment (DCE)

Setting: one of two gynaecologic oncology clinics affiliated with a university

Inclusion:

- patients with suspected ovarian neoplasm

Exclusion:

- cancer diagnosis

DCE 1: Local: distance that participants travelled to reach the clinic

Regional: additional 50 miles

DCE 2: Distances between hospitals ranged from 0 miles (hospitals were equidistant from the participant’s home) to 250 miles in nine increments

Burkamp et al. (2019) Patient preferences between minimum volume thresholds and nationwide healthcare provision: the example of total knee arthroplasty; Z Orthop Unfall. 2019 / Germany

Scenario: hypothetical (participants should imagine that they had to undergo total knee arthroplasty)

Method: discrete choice experiment (DCE)

Setting: recruited via random samples of registration offices and hospitals, DCE took place in hospital or in an office in the recruitment place

Inclusion:

- age 50–69 years

- ability to understand the language and the DCE

Exclusion: not reported

Local: 15 min’ drive

Regional: 90 min’ drive