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PharmacoEconomics
Published in: PharmacoEconomics 4/2017

Open Access 01-04-2017 | Original Research Article

Measuring Care-Related Quality of Life of Caregivers for Use in Economic Evaluations: CarerQol Tariffs for Australia, Germany, Sweden, UK, and US

Authors: Renske J. Hoefman, Job van Exel, Werner B. F. Brouwer

Published in: PharmacoEconomics | Issue 4/2017

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Abstract

Background

Informal care is often not included in economic evaluations in healthcare, while the impact of caregiving can be relevant for cost-effectiveness recommendations from a societal perspective. The impact of informal care can be measured and valued with the CarerQol instrument, which measures the impact of informal care on seven important burden dimensions (CarerQol-7D) and values this in terms of general quality of life (CarerQol-VAS). The CarerQol can be included at the effect side of multi-criteria analyses of patient interventions or in cost-effectiveness or utility analysis of interventions targeted at caregivers.

Objective

At present, utility scores based on relative utility weights for the CarerQol-7D are only available for the Netherlands. This study calculates CarerQol-7D tariffs for Australia, Germany, Sweden, UK, and US.

Methods

Data were collected among the general population in Australia, Germany, Sweden, UK, and US by an Internet survey. Utility weights were collected with a discrete choice experiment with two unlabeled alternatives described in terms of the seven CarerQol-7D dimensions. An efficient experimental design with priors obtained from the Netherlands was used to create the choice sets. Data was analyzed with a panel mixed multinomial logit model with random parameters.

Results

In all five countries, the CarerQol-7D dimensions were significantly associated with the utility of informal care situations. Physical health problems were most strongly associated with the utility for informal care situations. The tariff was constructed by adding up the relative utility weights per category of all CarerQol-7D dimensions for each country separately.

Conclusion

The CarerQol tariffs for Australia, Germany, Sweden, UK, and US facilitate the inclusion of informal care in economic evaluations.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
Minimum number of independent choice probabilities: S × (J − 1) ≥ K, where S is the number of choice sets, J is the number of alternatives, and K is the degrees of freedom of parameters.
 
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Metadata
Title
Measuring Care-Related Quality of Life of Caregivers for Use in Economic Evaluations: CarerQol Tariffs for Australia, Germany, Sweden, UK, and US
Authors
Renske J. Hoefman
Job van Exel
Werner B. F. Brouwer
Publication date
01-04-2017
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Published in
PharmacoEconomics / Issue 4/2017
Print ISSN: 1170-7690
Electronic ISSN: 1179-2027
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40273-016-0477-x

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