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Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
Published in: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 1/2013

Open Access 01-12-2013 | Research

Validity and responsiveness of the EQ-5D in assessing and valuing health status in patients with somatoform disorders

Authors: Christian Brettschneider, Hans-Helmut König, Wolfgang Herzog, Claudia Kaufmann, Rainer Schaefert, Alexander Konnopka

Published in: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes | Issue 1/2013

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Abstract

Background

The EQ-5D is a generic questionnaire providing a preference-based index score applicable to cost-utility analysis. This is the first study to validate the EQ-5D in patients with somatoform disorders.

Methods

Data of the EQ-5D descriptive system, the British and the German EQ-5D index and the EQ Visual Analogue Scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire 15, the Patient Health Questionnaire 9, the Whiteley Index 7 and the Short Form 36 were collected from 294 patients at baseline, 244 at 6 months and 256 at 12 months after baseline.
The discriminative ability of the EQ-5D was evaluated by comparison with a general population sample and by the ability to distinguish between different symptom severities. Convergent validity was analysed by assessing associations between the EQ-5D and the other instruments. Responsiveness was evaluated by analysing the effects on scores between two measurements in groups of patients reporting worse, same or better health. The Bonferroni correction was employed.

Results

For all items of the EQ-5D except ‘self-care’, patients with somatoform disorders reported more problems than the general population. The EQ-5D showed discriminative ability in patients with different symptom severities. For nearly all reference instruments there were significant differences in mean scores between respondents with and without problems in the various EQ-5D items and strong correlations with the EQ Visual Analogue Scale and the EQ-5D index scores. Evidence for the responsiveness of the EQ-5D could only be found for patients with better health; effects were medium at the utmost.

Conclusions

The EQ-5D showed a considerable validity and a limited responsiveness in patients with somatoform disorders.

Trial registration

Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN55280791
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
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Metadata
Title
Validity and responsiveness of the EQ-5D in assessing and valuing health status in patients with somatoform disorders
Authors
Christian Brettschneider
Hans-Helmut König
Wolfgang Herzog
Claudia Kaufmann
Rainer Schaefert
Alexander Konnopka
Publication date
01-12-2013
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes / Issue 1/2013
Electronic ISSN: 1477-7525
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-11-3

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