title: Assessing the Health-Related Quality of Life of Australian Adolescents: An Empirical Comparison of the Child Health Utility 9D and EQ-5D-Y Instruments.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the performance of two recently developed preference-based instruments-the Child Health Utility 9D (CHU9D) and the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire Youth version (EQ-5D-Y)-in assessing the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Australian adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  An online survey including the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y, self-reported health status, and a series of sociodemographic questions was developed for administration to a community-based sample of adolescents (aged 11-17 years). Individual responses to both instruments were translated into utilities using scoring algorithms derived from the Australian adult general population.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 2020 adolescents completed the online survey. The mean ± SD utilities of the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y were very similar (0.82 ± 0.13 and 0.83 ± 0.19, respectively), and the intraclass correlation coefficient (0.80) suggested good levels of agreement. Both instruments were able to discriminate according to varying levels of self-reported health status (P < 0.001). Although exhibiting good levels of agreement overall, some wide divergences were apparent at an individual level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study results are encouraging and illustrate the potential for both the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y to be more widely used for measuring and valuing the HRQOL of adolescent populations in Australia and internationally. Generating adolescent-specific scoring algorithms pertaining to each instrument and an empirical comparison of the resulting utilities is a natural next step. More evidence is required from the application of the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y in specific patient groups in adolescent health settings to inform the choice of instrument for measuring and valuing the HRQOL for the economic evaluation of adolescent health care treatments and services.
authors.affiliation: Flinders Health Economics Group, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. Electronic address: Gang.Chen@flinders.edu.au.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research Ethics and Bioethics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Flynn
authors.affiliation: Health Economics and Decision Science, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.affiliation: Health Economics and Decision Science, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brazier
authors.affiliation: Institute for Choice, School of Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Huynh
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Paediatrics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sawyer
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: Flinders Health Economics Group, School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ratcliffe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D057566:Self Report / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards
keywords: CHU9D; EQ-5D-Y; adolescent; health-related quality of life