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Published on: September 19, 2012
Employing Psychological Distance to Explain Perspective-Specific EQ-5D-Y-3L Health State Valuation: A Bayesian
Zhongyu Lang1,2, Arthur E Attema2,3, Stefan A Lipman2,3
1Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Summary
Psychological distance influences health state valuations using the EQ-5D-Y-3L instrument. Greater psychological distance, particularly hypothetical and temporal, increases composite time tradeoff (cTTO) utilities in pediatric health valuations.
Area of Science:
- Health Economics
- Psychology
- Psychometrics
Background:
- The EQ-5D-Y-3L is a key tool for assessing pediatric health states.
- Adults valuing child health states report higher utilities than when valuing their own.
- Construal Level Theory (CLT) offers a framework to explain these valuation discrepancies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if psychological distance explains utility differences in EQ-5D-Y-3L valuations.
- To examine the impact of CLT's four dimensions of psychological distance (social, temporal, spatial, hypothetical) on health state utilities.
Main Methods:
- Online composite time tradeoff (cTTO) interviews with 150 UK adults.
- Valuation of 4 health states under experimentally manipulated psychological distance.
- Bayesian hierarchical analysis to assess the influence of psychological distance dimensions on utilities.
Main Results:
- Higher aggregated psychological distance correlated with increased cTTO utilities (β = 0.02).
- Hypothetical (β = 0.05) and temporal (β = 0.04) distance positively influenced utilities.
- Spatial distance showed a slight negative association (β = -0.03) with utilities.
Conclusions:
- Psychological distance partially explains utility variations between adult and child perspectives in EQ-5D-Y-3L.
- Future research should focus on refining perspective descriptions to mitigate psychological distance effects.
- Ensuring clarity and consistency in valuation tasks is crucial for reliable health state utility data.
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