Patient preference quality of life measures in dermatology

Patient quality of life (QOL) is an important aspect of health care. It is crucial that we continue to develop instruments to assist in detecting burden of disease, interpreting outcomes of clinical trials, determining cost effectiveness of therapies, and guiding clinical decision making. The measurement of patient preferences, specifically utilities and contingent valuation, for health states provides data that can assist in the aforementioned endeavors. Patient preferences have been measured in many areas of medicine. However, it is relatively new to the field of dermatology. The present authors provide an overview of the basic concepts of patient preference measures and how they compare to the widely used health status instruments. Various techniques that have been used to elicit patient preferences are discussed, including standard gamble, time trade-off, willingness-to-pay, rating scales, health utilities index, and EuroQol (EQ-5D). In addition, the present authors review the current literature reporting utilities relevant to dermatology.