EQ-5D-5L in Schizophrenia: differences between patients and nurses’ reports

To examine the differences between patient-reports and proxy-reports by nurses of EQ-5D-5L responses among patients with schizophrenia.

This study was conducted in June–September 2019 in Duren Sawit Regional Public Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia. The self-report data were obtained by interviewing the patients and the proxy-report data were obtained from the psychiatric nurses. The patients’ Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores were obtained from their medical records. The data were collected in two time points: (1) when the patients moved from the acute to the quiet rooms (first-test) and (2) when they were discharged from the hospital (second-test). The self and proxy report scores were analysed by the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test and their relationship with the PANSS scores using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.

There were 206 patients in the final sample. The majority are male (56.8%) with a mean age of 37.5 years (SD = 12.05). Significant differences between the two reports were found in three domains (i.e., self-care, usual activities, and pain/discomfort) in the first-test and two domains (i.e., usual activities and pain/discomfort) in the second-test. Concerning the relationship with the PANSS scores, only three significant correlations were found, all in the proxy-version and in the second-test: mobility (r = 0.139), anxiety/depression (r = 0.2523), and utility scores (r = − 0.176).

The poor-to-fair agreement between patients and nurses reports and the poor correlation with the PANSS scores suggested that it is difficult to decide which report best represents the patients’ health status.