The quality of life questionnaire EQ-5D-5L: psychometric properties and normative values for the general German population.
OBJECTIVE
The health state classifier EQ-5D of the EuroQoL group has been expanded to a 5-level instrument (EQ-5D-5L), but studies on psychometric properties of this new instrument, applied to the general population, are rare.


METHODS
A sample of 2,469 subjects, representatively selected from the German general population, was asked to fill in the EQ-5D-5L and several other questionnaires. Crude sum scores of the EQ-5D-5L were calculated and compared with scores derived from two sets of utilities, one from a German and one from a UK sample.


RESULTS
The mean sum score (0-100 scale) was 91.5. Males reported better health states than females, and there was a nearly linear age trend. The list of the 45 most frequent health patterns (those with at least 0.2 % of the respondents) showed that almost half of the participants (47.5 %) responded being in the optimal health state, indicating a ceiling effect. Correlations between EQ-5D-5L scores and other questionnaires were very similar for all three scoring systems of the EQ-5D-5L. Finally, normative scores are given on the basis of sum scores.


CONCLUSIONS
The applicability of the EQ-5D-5L in the general population is limited because of the skewness. Sum scores are useful because of their simplicity, international generalizability, and construct validity.
Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University of Leipzig, Philipp-Rosenthal-Str. 55, 04103, Leipzig, Germany, andreas.hinz@medizin.uni-leipzig.de.
Andreas
A
Hinz
Thomas
T
Kohlmann
Yve
Y
Stöbel-Richter
Markus
M
Zenger
Elmar
E
Brähler
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult