Valuing the Dental Caries Utility Index in Australia

Ruvini M. Hettiarachchi, Sanjeewa Kularatna, Joshua Byrnes, Brendan Mulhern, Gang Chen and Paul Scuffham
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Ruvini M. Hettiarachchi: Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Sanjeewa Kularatna: Australian Centre for Health Services Innovacions and Centre for Healthcare Transformation, The Queensland University of Technology, QLD, Australia
Brendan Mulhern: Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Gang Chen: Centre for Health Economics, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

Medical Decision Making, 2023, vol. 43, issue 7-8, 901-913

Abstract: Introduction The Dental Caries Utility Index (DCUI) is a new oral health–specific health state classification system for adolescents, consisting of 5 domains: pain/discomfort, difficulty eating food/drinking, worried, ability to participate in activities, and appearance. Each domain has 4 response levels. This study aims to generate an Australian-specific utility algorithm for the DCUI. Methods An online survey was conducted using a representative sample of the adult Australian general population. The discrete choice experiment (DCE) was used to elicit the preferences on 5 domains. Then, the latent utilities were anchored onto the full health-dead scale using the visual analogue scale (VAS). DCE data were modeled using conditional logit, and 2 anchoring procedures were considered: anchor based on the worst health state and a mapping approach. The optimal anchoring procedure was selected based on the model parsimony and the mean absolute error (MAE). Results A total of 995 adults from the Australian general population completed the survey. The conditional logit estimates on 5 dimensions and levels were monotonic and statistically significant, except for the second level of the “worried†and “appearance†domains. The mapping approach was selected based on a smaller MAE between the 2 anchoring procedures. The Australian-specific tariff of DCUI ranges from 0.1681 to 1. Conclusion This study developed a utility algorithm for the DCUI. This value set will facilitate utility value calculations from the participants’ responses for DCUI in economic evaluations of dental caries interventions targeted for adolescents. Highlights Preference-based quality-of-life measures (PBMs), which consist of a health state classification system and a set of utility values (a scoring algorithm), are used to generate utility weights for economic evaluations. This study is the first to develop an Australian utility value set for the Dental Caries Utility Index (DCUI), a new oral health–specific classification system for adolescents. The availability of a utility value set will enable using DCUI in economic evaluations of oral health interventions targeted for adolescents and may ultimately lead to more effective and efficient planning of oral health care services.

Keywords: dental caries; adolescents; valuation; discrete choice experiments; preference based; visual analogue scale (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:medema:v:43:y:2023:i:7-8:p:901-913

DOI: 10.1177/0272989X231197149

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