EQ-5D Value Sets: Inventory, Comparative Review and User Guide

Rosalind Rabin, Frank de Charro, Agota Szende 1.1 Purpose of this booklet Governments and healthcare funders worldwide are making increasing use of economic evaluation to inform priority setting in health care. For various reasons, cost benefit analysis is usually rejected in favour of cost-effectiveness or cost-utility analyses, often involving the estimation of the incremental cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) gained (Drummond et al, 2005). The estimation of QALYs gained requires valuations for all relevant health states on a scale anchored at 1 = Full health and 0 = Dead. The EQ-5D is widely used in this context and a number of value sets are available for all the health states generated by the EQ-5D descriptive system. These can be readily applied to health outcomes measured as EQ-5D profiles. EQ-5D has become one of the valuation approaches recommended by several reimbursement authorities and academic bodies in European countries (e.g. The Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, UK), North America (e.g. Canada), and elsewhere (e.g. New Zealand). The EuroQol Group frequently receives requests for advice regarding EQ-5D valuation data. Those seeking to apply EQ-5D valuations in economic evaluation want to know about the availability of EQ-5D value sets and how they can obtain them. They also seek specific guidance about which of the available value sets they should use for their purposes.

From the reviews

‘This short volume will be of great value to methodologists seeking to understand the valuation systems that underlie the EQ-5D. It's user-friendly organization will assist analysts and other members of the health services research community in determining appropriate valuation sets for studies that rely on the EuroQol instrument.’ (Marthe Gold, (Logan) Professor of Community Health and Social Medicine, City University of New York Medical School, USA)

‘This book usefully draws together, for the first time, information on the EuroQol Group's value sets of estimated utilities around the world. An important contribution of this book is that analysts now can - and should - use its reporting of the many value sets available to check the extent to which an estimate of the QALY gain of an intervention varies when different sets of estimated utilities are used’. (Alastair Fischer, Health Economist, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), UK)

'Finally! EuroQoL value sets all in one place, together with some guidance on how to put them to best effect. A handy reference to keep in reach.' (Matthew Brougham, Acting Chief Executive, the Pharmaceutical Management Agency of New Zealand (PHARMAC)