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. 2020 Jan;14(1):19-27.
doi: 10.1111/irv.12686. Epub 2019 Oct 18.

Estimates for quality of life loss due to Respiratory Syncytial Virus

David Hodgson  1   2 , Katherine E Atkins  3   4   5 , Marc Baguelin  3   4   6 , Jasmina Panovska-Griffiths  1   2   3   7 , Dominic Thorrington  3   6 , Albert Jan van Hoek  4   8 , Hongxin Zhao  6 , Ellen Fragaszy  4   9 , Andrew C Hayward  10 , Richard Pebody  6
Affiliations

Estimates for quality of life loss due to Respiratory Syncytial Virus

David Hodgson et al. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Background: In children aged <5 years in whom severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) episodes predominantly occur, there are currently no appropriate standardised instruments to estimate quality of life years (QALY) loss.

Objectives: We estimated the age-specific QALY loss due to RSV by developing a regression model which predicts the QALY loss without the use of standardised instruments.

Methods: We conducted a surveillance study which targeted confirmed RSV episodes in children aged <5 years (confirmed cases) and their household members who experienced symptoms of RSV during the same time (suspected cases). All participants were asked to complete questions regarding their health during the infection, with the suspected cases additionally providing health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) loss estimates by completing EQ-5D-3L-Y or EQ-5D-3L instruments. We used the responses from the suspected cases to calibrate a regression model which estimates the HR-QoL and QALY loss due to infection.

Findings: For confirmed RSV cases in children under 5 years of age who sought health care, our model predicted a QALY loss per RSV episode of 3.823 × 10-3 (95% CI 0.492-12.766 × 10-3 ), compared with 3.024 × 10-3 (95% CI 0.329-10.098 × 10-3 ) for under fives who did not seek health care. Quality of life years loss per episode was less for older children and adults, estimated as 1.950 × 10-3 (0.185-9.578 × 10-3 ) and 1.543 × 10-3 (0.136-6.406 × 10-3 ) for those who seek or do not seek health care, respectively.

Conclusion: Evaluations of potential RSV vaccination programmes should consider their impact across the whole population, not just young child children.

Keywords: EQ-5D; cost-effectiveness; health-related quality of life; human respiratory syncytial virus; quality-adjusted life years; respiratory disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Age of confirmed RSV samples in PHE database (N = 770, black) and of the returned questionnaires for analysis (N = 122, grey)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Responses from the EQ‐5D‐3L‐Y and EQ‐5D‐3L questionnaires on the day of completion (Base) and the worst day of health during a suspected infection for respondents aged 5‐14 y old (top) and 15+ y old (bottom)
Figure 3
Figure 3
The peak HR‐QoL loss from the EQ‐5D questionnaires (dark grey) and estimated using the statistical model (light grey). The dashed line shows the mean, and solid thin lines indicate the upper and lower 95% confidence interval
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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