Argentine valuation of the EQ-5D health states.
OBJECTIVE
To develop a set of health state values based on EuroQol EQ-5D instrument for the Argentine general population.


METHODS
Consecutive subjects attending six primary care centers in Argentina were selected based on quota sampling and were interviewed using the EuroQol Group protocol for measurement and valuation of health studies. Initially, the respondents were randomly assigned a unique card set; however, to improve efficiency, the subjects were later randomly assigned to one of three fixed sets of EQ-5D states. Using the visual analog scale (VAS) and time-trade off (TTO) responses for these states, we estimated a valuation model using ordinary least squares regression clustered by respondent. Predicted values for EQ-5D health states are compared with published values for the United States.


RESULTS
Six hundred eleven subjects were interviewed by 14 trained interviewers, rendering 6887 TTO and 6892 VAS responses. The model had an R(2) of 0.897 and 0.928 for TTO and VAS, respectively. The mean absolute difference between observed and predicted values was 0.039 for TTO and 0.020 for VAS, each showing a Lin's concordance coefficient more than 0.98. Argentine and US TTO-predicted values were highly correlated (Pearson's rho = 0.963), although the average absolute difference was clinically meaningful (0.06), rejecting the US values for nearly two-thirds of the states (62.8%). The Argentine population placed lower values on mild states and higher values on severe states.


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides an Argentine value set that could be used locally or regionally, with meaningful and significant differences with that of the United States. Health policy in Latin America must incorporate local values for sovereignty and validity.
Augustovski
Federico Ariel
FA
Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Irazola
Vilma Edit
VE
Velazquez
Alberto Pascual
AP
Gibbons
Luz
L
Craig
Benjamin M
BM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001118:Argentina; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010147:Pain Measurement; D057240:Patient Preference; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult