Statistical Analysis of EQ-5D Profiles: Does the Use of Value Sets Bias Inference?

David Parkin, Nigel Rice and Nancy Devlin ()

Medical Decision Making, 2010, vol. 30, issue 5, 556-565

Abstract: Health state profile data, such as those provided by the EQ-5D, are widely collected in clinical trials, population surveys, and a growing range of other important health sector applications. However, these profile data are difficult to summarize to give an overall view of the health of a given population that can be analyzed for differences between groups or within groups over time. A common way of short cutting this problem is to transform profiles into a single number, or index, using sets of weights, often elicited from the general public in the form of values. Are there any problems with this procedure? In this article, the authors demonstrate the underlying effects of the use of value sets as a means of weighting profile data. They show that any set of weights introduces an exogenous source of variance to health profile data. These can distort findings about the significance of changes in health between groups or over time. No set of weights is neutral in its effect. If a summary of patient-reported outcomes is required, it may be better to use an instrument that yields this directly (such as the EQ VAS) along with the descriptive instrument. If this is not possible, researchers should have a clear rationale for their choice of weights and be aware that those weights may exert a nontrivial effect on their analysis. This article focuses on the EQ-5D, but the arguments and their implications for statistical analysis are relevant to all health state descriptive systems.

Keywords: EQ-5D; health state measurement; health state profiles; health index; health state values. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X09357473 (text/html)

Related works:
Working Paper: Statistical analysis of EQ-5D profiles: does the use of value sets bias inference? (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:medema:v:30:y:2010:i:5:p:556-565

DOI: 10.1177/0272989X09357473

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Medical Decision Making
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().