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Published on: August 1, 2019
Development and validation of a utility weighting function for the patient-oriented prostate utility scale (PORPUS)
George Tomlinson1,2,3,4, Karen E Bremner2,3, Paul Ritvo5
1Department of Medicine and Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (GT, GN, MDK)
Summary
A new scoring system allows indirect calculation of health utilities from the Patient Oriented Prostate Utility Scale (PORPUS) for prostate cancer patients. This validated tool, PORPUS-U, aids clinical and research settings.
Area of Science:
- Health Economics
- Patient-Reported Outcomes
- Prostate Cancer Research
Background:
- Previously developed the Patient Oriented Prostate Utility Scale (PORPUS) for prostate cancer (PC).
- Need for an indirect method to calculate health utilities from the PORPUS system.
Purpose of the Study:
- Develop and validate a scoring system for indirect utility calculation from the PORPUS.
- Create the PORPUS-U, an indirect utility instrument for PC.
Main Methods:
- Interviewed 234 PC outpatients to gather rating scale (RS) and standard gamble (SG) data.
- Developed a risk aversion function using RS and SG scores.
- Tested 15 strategies to estimate the multiattribute utility function (MAUF), selecting the optimal based on prediction error (RMSE).
Main Results:
- The optimal strategy yielded a low root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.06.
- Validated the MAUF by comparing predicted utilities to directly elicited SG utilities in prior studies.
- Confirmed the validity of the developed multiattribute utility function.
Conclusions:
- The scoring system and PORPUS form the PORPUS-U, an indirect utility instrument.
- PORPUS-U enables efficient utility assessment in clinical practice and research for prostate cancer.
