Small differences in EQ-5D-5L health utility scores were interpreted differently between and within respondents

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.10.019
• Publication Date: 2021-11-02T07:02:55Z
• Authors: Nathan S. McClure; Feng Xie; Mike Paulden; Arto Ohinmaa; Jeffrey A. Johnson
• Keywords: EQ-5D; Ordinal Scale; Time-trade-off

This study aims to determine how population-based health-utility score (HUS) differences reflect individuals' health preferences using responses from the Canadian EQ-5D-5L Valuation Study, including time trade-off (TTO) and discrete-choice experiment (DCE) tasks (n = 1073).Cardinal TTO were transformed into pairwise comparisons yield ordinal responses. We investigated HUS differ participants' stated cardinal preferences, determined smallest difference that may be expected represent preferences.HUS near zero have 30.6% (95% confidence interval: 29.1-31.9%) probability of representing a tie in values. Differences -0.054 (-0.071 -0.029) 0.047 (0.026-0.076) maximized sensitivity specificity discriminating transitions worse/better states. For small ±0.03 ±0.07, magnitude respondents' average on scale was 0.17 0.35 whether ties included or excluded, respectively. Absolute between 0.042 0.062 had 50% preferences.A needs large enough which lend support application minimally important for decision-making.