Differences between hypothetical and experience-based value sets for EQ-5D used in Sweden: Implications for decision...

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Quality of Life Research
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Value sets convert EQ-5D responses into quality-adjusted life year (QALY) weights for health economic evaluations.
• Existing value sets, like the UK hypothetical set, differ from newer, experience-based sets, such as the Swedish one.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze differences between the UK hypothetical and Swedish experience-based EQ-5D value sets.
• To evaluate the health economic implications of these differences on policy decisions.

Main Methods:

• Comparison of all EQ-5D health states and pure improvements between the two value sets.
• Empirical analysis using a database of 23,925 individuals to identify affected patient groups.

Main Results:

• The Swedish experience-based set assigned lower QALY weights to only three health states and smaller absolute values to most improvements compared to the UK set.
• Severe health conditions received higher QALY values under the Swedish experience-based set.

Conclusions:

• The Swedish experience-based value set generally indicates a higher health-related quality of life across most conditions than the UK hypothetical set.
• Policy decisions may prioritize quality-of-life enhancing interventions using hypothetical values, whereas experience-based values might prioritize life-prolonging interventions.