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. 2022 May;6(3):425-435.
doi: 10.1007/s41669-021-00314-2. Epub 2022 Jan 26.

Examining the Association between Polish Migrant Status and Health Preferences Using a Novel Application of a Smaller Design EQ-5D-5L Valuation Study

Dan Kelleher  1 , Samer Kharroubi  2 , Edel Doherty  3 , Gianluca Baio  4 , Ciaran O'Neill  5
Affiliations

Examining the Association between Polish Migrant Status and Health Preferences Using a Novel Application of a Smaller Design EQ-5D-5L Valuation Study

Dan Kelleher et al. Pharmacoecon Open. 2022 May.

Abstract

Introduction: Migrants have different utilisation of healthcare services and health-related behaviours than host populations. A potential factor that may contribute to the notable differences in healthcare use and health-related behaviours between migrants and host populations is how these groups value health. Those who place a high value on health have greater healthcare-seeking practices than those who do not.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine how Polish migrants and native Irish differ in health state utility valuations using a novel application of a smaller design EQ-5D-5L valuation study.

Methods: This study uses health preferences as a predictor of how one values health. We examined the EQ-5D-5L health preferences of 119 Polish migrants and 123 native Irish, both residing full-time in Ireland. To do so, we used a novel application of a smaller design EQ-5D-5L valuation study that consisted of 30 health states and a targeted sampling strategy coupled with a Bayesian statistical nonparametric model. We collected data from June 2018 to September 2019.

Results: Our results highlight that Polish migrants and native Irish differ in their health preferences for and valuation of severe health states. Polish migrants place meaningfully higher utility valuations of 0.1 or more on the three most severe health states compared with the native Irish.

Conclusion: This study can provide an understanding of a potential new factor underpinning some of the disparities in healthcare utilisation and health-related behaviours among migrants and host populations in Europe. This study also provides proof of principle for using a smaller design EQ-5D-5L valuation study to explore differences in health preferences among other minority subgroups, which can otherwise be hard to uncover when using the secondary analysis of national EQ-5D-5L valuation studies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dan Kelleher, Samer Kharroubi, Edel Doherty, Gianluca Baio, and Ciaran O’Neill have no conflicting interests, monetary or otherwise, that would in any way inhibit the submission and publication of this research. None of the authors have any research or professional conflicts of interest to report.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Polish migrant observed vs. predicted valuations
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Native Irish observed vs. predicted valuations
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Histograms of the conditional posterior distributions of the covariate effects
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Predicted differences in cTTO utility valuations by group. cTTO composite time trade-off
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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