An EQ-5D-5L value set for Belgium – How to value health-related quality of life?
KCE Reports 342C (2021)
Summary
For a long time, decisions on whether to reimburse a health intervention have taken into account the impact of the illness and its treatment on patient life expectancy and quality of life. For life expectancy, there is a clear measure: time. However, quality of life is harder to quantify. Yet it is essential to know how to measure it in order to be able to make comparisons between patients suffering from different conditions and/or receiving different treatments.
EQ-5D is a tool that is widely used for measuring health-related quality of life (in other words, the specific impact of health or illness on quality of life). Its EQ-5D-5L version describes 3,125 states of health to which a “value” is attributed reflecting quality of life, called the “utility score”. For the first time, KCE has developed a set of values (valuation matrix) for EQ-5D-5L, based on an extensive survey among a representative sample of the Belgian population.
This valuation matrix proposes, for each health issue described by EQ-5D, a quality of life value reflecting the average preferences of the Belgian population.
When it comes to assessing health interventions, treatments or new technologies, these utility scores make it possible to choose between length of life and quality of life.
The study was cofunded by EuroQol Research Foundation.
How to refer to this document?
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Methods
- Data analysis
- Results: the Belgian EQ-5D-5L value set
- Discussion and conclusion
Files
- Open the scientific report (.PDF, 110 p., 5.62 MB)
- Download the Belgian EQ-5D-5L value set in digital format for statistical analysis (.XLSX, 318.52 KB)
- Download the webinar PPT presentation on EQ-5D-5L (.PPTX, 3.31 MB)