Assessing the Health-Related Quality of Life of Australian Adolescents: An Empirical Comparison of the Child Health Utility 9D and EQ-5D-Y Instruments

Gang Chen; Terry Flynn; Katherine Stevens; John Brazier; Elisabeth Huynh; Michael Sawyer; Rachel Roberts; Julie Ratcliffe

doi:10.1016/j.jval.2015.02.014

Assessing the Health-Related Quality of Life of Australian Adolescents: An Empirical Comparison of the Child Health Utility 9D and EQ-5D-Y Instruments

Value Health. 2015 Jun;18(4):432-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jval.2015.02.014. Epub 2015 May 16.

Authors

Gang Chen¹, Terry Flynn², Katherine Stevens³, John Brazier³, Elisabeth Huynh⁴, Michael Sawyer⁵, Rachel Roberts⁶, Julie Ratcliffe⁷

Affiliations

¹ Flinders Health Economics Group, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. Electronic address: Gang.Chen@flinders.edu.au.
² Centre for Research Ethics and Bioethics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
³ Health Economics and Decision Science, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
⁴ Institute for Choice, School of Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
⁵ Discipline of Paediatrics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
⁶ School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
⁷ Flinders Health Economics Group, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.

PMID: 26091597
DOI: 10.1016/j.jval.2015.02.014

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the performance of two recently developed preference-based instruments-the Child Health Utility 9D (CHU9D) and the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire Youth version (EQ-5D-Y)-in assessing the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Australian adolescents.

Methods: An online survey including the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y, self-reported health status, and a series of sociodemographic questions was developed for administration to a community-based sample of adolescents (aged 11-17 years). Individual responses to both instruments were translated into utilities using scoring algorithms derived from the Australian adult general population.

Results: A total of 2020 adolescents completed the online survey. The mean ± SD utilities of the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y were very similar (0.82 ± 0.13 and 0.83 ± 0.19, respectively), and the intraclass correlation coefficient (0.80) suggested good levels of agreement. Both instruments were able to discriminate according to varying levels of self-reported health status (P < 0.001). Although exhibiting good levels of agreement overall, some wide divergences were apparent at an individual level.

Conclusions: The study results are encouraging and illustrate the potential for both the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y to be more widely used for measuring and valuing the HRQOL of adolescent populations in Australia and internationally. Generating adolescent-specific scoring algorithms pertaining to each instrument and an empirical comparison of the resulting utilities is a natural next step. More evidence is required from the application of the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y in specific patient groups in adolescent health settings to inform the choice of instrument for measuring and valuing the HRQOL for the economic evaluation of adolescent health care treatments and services.

Keywords: CHU9D; EQ-5D-Y; adolescent; health-related quality of life.

Publication types

Comparative Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior* / psychology
Australia / epidemiology
Child
Empirical Research*
Female
Health Status*
Health Surveys / standards*
Humans
Male
Quality of Life* / psychology
Self Report / standards*
Surveys and Questionnaires / standards