Quality-adjusted life year weights among elderly patients with heart failure.
BACKGROUND
When assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in elderly patients with heart failure (HF), the process of obtaining quality-adjusted life year (QALY) weights is generally complicated and time-consuming.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether information regarding HRQoL and QALY weights can be derived directly from the established and widely used New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification system.


METHODS
NYHA functional status was assessed independently both by the individual patients and by the examining cardiologist in 323 elderly patients with symptoms of HF recruited from primary care. HRQoL was evaluated using the SF-36 questionnaire and a time trade-off (TTO) scenario. The TTO technique generates direct QALY weights.


RESULTS
Both the TTO technique and SF-36 values demonstrated a statistically significant correlation with NYHA functional status. The TTO values also correlated with all SF-36 dimensions. Increasing impairment was associated with statistically significant drops in both SF-36 values and TTO-based QALY weights. For patients in NYHA classes I-IV the QALY weights were 0.77, 0.68, 0.61, and 0.50, respectively. Thus in elderly patients, symptoms of HF have a major impact on perceived quality of life.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of the present study show that QALY weights, an important instrument in the health economic evaluation of treatment strategies, can be derived directly from NYHA classification in elderly HF patients.
Alehagen
Urban
U
Department of Cardiology, Heart Centre, University Hospital of Linköping, Linköping, Sweden. Urban.Alehagen@IHS.liu.se
Rahmqvist
Mikael
M
Paulsson
Thomas
T
Levin
Lars-Ake
LA