A social tariff for EuroQol: results from a UK general population survey

Paul Dolan, Claire Gudex, Paul Kind () and Alan Williams
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Paul Kind: Centre for Health Economics, The University of York

No 138chedp, Working Papers from Centre for Health Economics, University of York

Abstract: An important consideration when establishing priorities in health care is the likely effects that alternative allocations of resources will have on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This paper reports on the analysis of data from a study which elicited health state valuations (using the time trade-off (TTO) method) from a representative sample of the UK health population. Health states were defined in terms of the EuroQol Descriptive System which generates 243 theoretically possible states. Because it was impossible to generate direct valuations for all of these states, it was necessary to find a procedure that allowed interpolation of valuations for all EuroQol states from direct valuations on a subset of these. This paper describes (in as non-technical manner as possible) the modelling technique used to generate a set of EuroQol valuations from directly observed valuations on 45 states. The specification of the models tested was derived from the ordinal nature of the EuroQol descriptive system, in which the value assigned to a particular state depends on the level of each dimension. Data were analysed at the individual level using a generalised least squares regression technique. A model that fitted the data well and that was readily interpretable was one in which valuations were explained in terms of three different elements: 1) the level of severity associated with each dimension independently of the levels of the other dimensions; 2) an intercept associated with any move away from full health; and 3) a term which identified whether any dimension was at its most severe level. The coefficients on these variables can be used to build up a fill ‘tariff’ of EuroQol values representing the views of a representative sample of the UK adult population. This social tariff has a number of potential uses, including the measurement of the likely impact on health status of different health care programmes or policies.

Keywords: HRQoL; EuroQol; QALYs; TTO method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 1995-09
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (74)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chy:respap:138chedp

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