This study investigated whether the use of UK and Canadian preference weights would lead to the computation of different health utility scores in a sample of persons with AD and their primary informal caregivers. Regression analyses were employed to develop a set of beta coefficients that would serve as the preference weights to convert EQ-5D-3L responses into health utility scores. These sub-sets were further divided into smaller groups for each participant to value using the TTO method.

In the UK and Canadian studies, the researchers chose different sub-sets of health states from the 243 total possible health states on the EQ-5D-3L. Researchers generated a Canadian set of preference weights for the EQ-5D-3L using the TTO method and a sample of 1145 participants who belonged to a market research panel. The original preference weights for the EQ-5D-3L were derived from the general UK population using the time trade-off (TTO) method. Algorithms (preference weights) can be used to convert EQ-5D-3L responses into health utility scores (range: 0 to 1 ), which are employed in cost-utility analyses to calculate quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). The EQ-5D-3L is one of the most frequently used generic instruments to measure HRQoL. HRQoL is an important means of assessing the impact of AD treatments because available therapies mitigate the symptoms of cognitive decline, but do not alter the progression of the disease. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an individual’s dynamic perception of the impact of a health state upon physical, emotional, and cognitive function, social role performance, well-being, and life satisfaction. AD and other dementias are the seventh leading cause of mortality and disability and the fourth leading cause of disease burden in high-income countries. Cognitive impairment, functional decline, and behavior and mood problems are the core features of AD. The original UK and Canadian population samples used to obtain the preference weights valued health states similarly.Īlzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegerative condition that accounts for 60 to 70 % of all cases of dementia. Health utility scores exhibited small and clinically unimportant differences when calculated with UK versus Canadian preference weights in persons with AD and their caregivers. Few socio-demographic characteristics were associated with the two sets of health utility scores. This finding persisted after stratifying by disease severity. The Canadian weights yielded slightly higher median health utility scores than the UK weights for caregivers (median difference: 0.009 95 % confidence interval: 0.007, 0.013). The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.94 (95 % CI: 0.92, 0.95) for persons with AD and 0.92 (95 % CI: 0.88, 0.94) for the caregivers. The distributions of health utility scores derived from both the UK and Canadian preference weights were skewed to the left. A generalized linear model with a gamma distribution was used to examine whether participants’ socio-demographic characteristics were associated with their health utility scores. Differences in health utility scores were tested using the Wilcoxon signed rank sum test. Bland-Altman plots depicted individual-level differences between the two sets of scores.

The levels of agreement between the two sets of scores were assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). EQ-5D-3L responses were transformed into health utility scores using UK and Canadian preference weights. Participants used the EQ-5D-3L to rate their health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL). We recruited 216 patient-caregiver dyads from nine geriatric and memory clinics across Canada. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the use of UK and Canadian preference weights will lead to the calculation of different health utility scores in a sample of persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their primary informal caregivers. The use of the EQ-5D to asses the economic benefits of health technologies has led to questions about the cross-population transferability of preference weights to calculate health utility scores.

United kingdom regress to weights