Can Adolescents Value the EQ-5D-Y-5L and EQ-5D-5L, and How Do the Values Compare? A Feasibility Study

Research into methods for eliciting adolescents' health state preferences has mostly avoided tasks for identifying health states worse than dead, which is required for calculating quality-adjusted life years for economic evaluations. This study investigated the feasibility of eliciting the health state preferences of older adolescents, including for states worse than dead, using the EQ-5D-Y-5L (Y-5L) and EQ-5D-5L (5L), and compared participants' preferences across the 2 instruments.

Two online surveys were created for the Y-5L and 5L, respectively, using the Potentially All Pairwise Rankings of all Possible Alternatives method, a type of adaptive discrete choice experiment, and a binary search algorithm for identifying health states worse than dead. The surveys were completed by 24 adolescents aged 16 to 19 years in 2 think-aloud sessions, with semistructured interviews at the end of each session. Dimension preference weights and rankings for the Y-5L and 5L were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients, Bland-Altman plots, and paired t tests.

The adolescents were capable of valuing health states and identifying states worse than dead. There is no evidence of a difference in mean preference weights between the Y-5L and 5L, and the rankings of dimensions are similar.

Eliciting the health state preferences of older adolescents, including for states worse than dead, is feasible and acceptable. The similarity in Y-5L and 5L mean preference weights suggests that their corresponding value sets, if obtained using the methods used in this study, would be similar. Data quality was enhanced by the surveys being administered in a supportive environment.