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. 2018 Jun;36(6):663-674.
doi: 10.1007/s40273-018-0615-8.

German Value Set for the EQ-5D-5L

Kristina Ludwig  1   2 , J-Matthias Graf von der Schulenburg  3 , Wolfgang Greiner  4
Affiliations

German Value Set for the EQ-5D-5L

Kristina Ludwig et al. Pharmacoeconomics. 2018 Jun.

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to develop a value set for EQ-5D-5L based on the societal preferences of the German population. As the first country to do so, the study design used the improved EQ-5D-5L valuation protocol 2.0 developed by the EuroQol Group, including a feedback module as internal validation and a quality control process that was missing in the first wave of EQ-5D-5L valuation studies.

Methods: A representative sample of the general German population (n = 1158) was interviewed using a composite time trade-off and a discrete choice experiment under close quality control. Econometric modeling was used to estimate values for all 3125 possible health states described by EQ-5D-5L. The value set was based on a hybrid model including all available information from the composite time trade-off and discrete choice experiment valuations without any exclusions due to data issues.

Results: The final German value set was constructed from a combination of a conditional logit model for the discrete choice experiment data and a censored at -1 Tobit model for the composite time trade-off data, correcting for heteroskedasticity. The value set had logically consistent parameter estimates (p < 0.001 for all coefficients). The predicted EQ-5D-5L index values ranged from -0.661 to 1.

Conclusions: This study provided values for the health states of the German version of EQ-5D-5L representing the preferences of the German population. The study successfully employed for the first time worldwide the improved protocol 2.0. The value set enables the use of the EQ-5D-5L instrument in economic evaluations and in clinical studies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

Kristina Ludwig and Wolfgang Greiner are members of the EuroQol Research Foundation (the copyright holders of EQ-5D-5L). J.-Matthias Graf von der Schulenburg has no conflicts of interest directly relevant to the content of this article.

Ethics approval

The study received ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of Hannover Medical School (1598–2012) and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Participants were informed about their freedom of refusal. Anonymity and confidentiality were maintained throughout the research process.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Data collection and quality control of interviewers
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Place of residence of respondents in the German EQ-5D-5L valuation study
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Observed composite time trade-off (cTTO) value distribution
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Mean composite time trade-off (cTTO) value by severity level
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Comparison of model predictions (86 states included in the composite time trade-off design)
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Kernel density plot of all possible EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L values
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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