TY - JOUR

T1 - Valuation of the EQ-5D-5L with composite time trade-off for the German population

T2 - an exploratory study

AU - Ludwig, Kristina

AU - von der Schulenburg, J. Matthias Graf

AU - Greiner, Wolfgang

N1 - Funding information: This study was co-funded by the EuroQol Research Foundation, the Department of Health Economics and Health Care Management at the Bielefeld University and the Center for Health Economics Research Hannover (CHERH). The authors acknowledge support of the publication fee by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Open Access Publication Funds of Bielefeld University. The authors would like to thank Katharina Viehmann, Kristina Schaubert, Ole Marten and Georg Böttcher to act as interviewers during the study. Moreover, the authors would like to thank Elly Stolk, Juan M. Ramos-Goñi, Koonal Shah, Kim Rand-Hendriksen and Arnd Jan Prause for their support during the study.

PY - 2017/2/20

Y1 - 2017/2/20

N2 - Background: The EuroQol Group has extended the severity levels of the EQ-5D from three to five (EQ-5D-5L). There are valuation studies worldwide planned in order to convert the EQ-5D-5L health states into a single preference-based summary score based on country-specific value sets of social health status preference valuations. The EuroQol Group developed an internationally standardised EQ-5D-5L valuation protocol. Based on the experiences of the first wave of valuation studies applying the protocol, a number of modifications to the implementation of composite time trade-off (cTTO) were proposed and tested in an exploratory study in Germany. Methods: The aim of the study is to test the improved EQ-5D-5L valuation protocol 1.1 and the implementation of three modifications: (1) introduction of ranking task, (2) separating time trade-off (TTO) tasks for health states "Better Than Dead"(BTD)/"Worse Than Dead" (WTD), (3) allow for removal of problematic valuations from the cTTO data (the feedback module). Data were collected in computer assisted personal interviews with 200 members of the German general public. Results: In comparison to the first wave of valuation studies a higher data quality can be observed in both study arms: increasing number of WTD valuations, reduced inconsistencies for health state 55555 as well as higher values for mild health states. Comparing both study arms, mean observed cTTO value for severity 6 is higher in the test arm. The proportion of inconsistent cTTO responses is lower in the test arm than in the control arm and is further reduced by the feedback module. The ranking task prolongs the interview without the desired effect. Conclusions: Both study arms yielded higher data quality in comparison to the first wave of EQ-5D-5L valuation studies. The valuation protocol combined with an intensive interviewer training and close data monitoring showed a high feasibility and acceptability to the respondents of the general population as well as the interviewers in Germany. Based on the results of this study and other countries, the separation of TTO tasks for health states BTD/WTD and the feedback module will be implemented in the valuation study for the EQ-5D-5L for Germany.

AB - Background: The EuroQol Group has extended the severity levels of the EQ-5D from three to five (EQ-5D-5L). There are valuation studies worldwide planned in order to convert the EQ-5D-5L health states into a single preference-based summary score based on country-specific value sets of social health status preference valuations. The EuroQol Group developed an internationally standardised EQ-5D-5L valuation protocol. Based on the experiences of the first wave of valuation studies applying the protocol, a number of modifications to the implementation of composite time trade-off (cTTO) were proposed and tested in an exploratory study in Germany. Methods: The aim of the study is to test the improved EQ-5D-5L valuation protocol 1.1 and the implementation of three modifications: (1) introduction of ranking task, (2) separating time trade-off (TTO) tasks for health states "Better Than Dead"(BTD)/"Worse Than Dead" (WTD), (3) allow for removal of problematic valuations from the cTTO data (the feedback module). Data were collected in computer assisted personal interviews with 200 members of the German general public. Results: In comparison to the first wave of valuation studies a higher data quality can be observed in both study arms: increasing number of WTD valuations, reduced inconsistencies for health state 55555 as well as higher values for mild health states. Comparing both study arms, mean observed cTTO value for severity 6 is higher in the test arm. The proportion of inconsistent cTTO responses is lower in the test arm than in the control arm and is further reduced by the feedback module. The ranking task prolongs the interview without the desired effect. Conclusions: Both study arms yielded higher data quality in comparison to the first wave of EQ-5D-5L valuation studies. The valuation protocol combined with an intensive interviewer training and close data monitoring showed a high feasibility and acceptability to the respondents of the general population as well as the interviewers in Germany. Based on the results of this study and other countries, the separation of TTO tasks for health states BTD/WTD and the feedback module will be implemented in the valuation study for the EQ-5D-5L for Germany.

KW - Discrete choice experiment

KW - EQ-5D-5L

KW - Quality of life

KW - Time trade-off

KW - Valuation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85013270034&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1186/s12955-017-0617-9

DO - 10.1186/s12955-017-0617-9

M3 - Article

C2 - 28219389

AN - SCOPUS:85013270034

VL - 15

JO - Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

JF - Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

SN - 1477-7525

IS - 39

ER -