Comparing preference-based quality-of-life measures: results from rehabilitation patients with musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, or psychosomatic disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the EQ-5D, 15D, HUI 2, HUI 3, SF-6D, and QWB-SA in terms of their descriptive statistics, score distribution, agreement and responsiveness in a sample of German rehabilitation inpatients.


METHODS
Patients with musculoskeletal (N = 106), cardiovascular (N = 88), and psychosomatic (N = 70) disorders completed questionnaires at the beginning (baseline) and end (follow-up) of their inpatient treatment. Comparisons addressed the proportion of missing data, distributional properties, agreement, and responsiveness. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), paired t-tests, and standardized response means (SRM) were computed.


RESULTS
Mean index scores at baseline ranged from 0.48 (HUI 3; psychosomatic) to 0.86 (15D; cardiovascular). At baseline, ceiling effects across all patient groups ranged from zero (SF-6D; cardiovascular and psychosomatic) to 21.6% (EQ-5D; cardiovascular). ICCs ranged from 0.26 (EQ-5D-QWB-SA; cardiovascular) to 0.80 (HUI 2-HUI 3; musculoskeletal). Substantial differences in responsiveness were observed between measures.


CONCLUSIONS
Results obtained with different preference-based quality-of-life measures in a sample of patients with mild to moderate disease severity are not equivalent. As differences between measures may have considerable effects in health economic evaluation studies, careful selection of instruments for a given study is essential.
Moock
Joern
J
University of Greifswald, Institute for Community Medicine, Walther-Rathenau-Strasse 48, Greifswald 17475, Germany. joern.moock@uni-greifswald.de
Kohlmann
Thomas
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000072038:Cardiac Rehabilitation; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome