title: The validity and responsiveness of the EQ-5D measure of health-related quality of life in an adolescent population with persistent major depression.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite a preference for economic evaluations to measure outcomes in terms of quality-adjusted life years, generic measures of outcome are rarely used in mental health research involving young people.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore the validity and responsiveness of the EQ-5D measure of health-related quality of life in adolescents with major depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data came from a clinical trial involving adolescents with persistent major depression (n =  199). Construct validity was tested using socio-demographic constructs and baseline clinical outcome scores. To assess convergent validity, correlation between EQ-5D and clinical outcome scores was tested. To assess responsiveness, the mean change in EQ-5D scores of participants categorised as improved versus not improved on clinical outcome measures was tested.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant differences in mean EQ-5D score were found for co-morbidity and three of four severity measures but not gender, age, treatment history or suicide attempts. Mean EQ-5D scores were significantly correlated with all clinical outcome measures, although relationships were moderate or weak. A change in mean EQ-5D score was significantly related to clinical assessments of improvement on all outcome measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results provide initial evidence to support the relevance of the EQ-5D in adolescents with major depression, but this evidence is weak. Replication studies are needed to assess the generalisability of these findings.
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Centre for the Economics of Mental and Physical Health, London, United Kingdom. s.byford@kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Byford
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom
chemical_list: D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors