Valuation of EQ-5D-5L Health States in Poland: the First EQ-VT-Based Study in Central and Eastern Europe

Cost-utility analyses are becoming increasingly important in Central and Eastern Europe. We aimed to develop a Polish utility tariff for EQ-5D-5L health states.

Face-to-face, computer-assisted interviews were collected in a representative sample. Each respondent followed a standardised protocol to collect ten composite time trade-off and seven discrete choice experiment observations. In the Bayesian approach, several model specifications were compared based on model fit, the usability of the final value set and how they reflect the elicitation procedure (e.g. censoring). A hybrid approach (using composite time trade-off and discrete choice experiment data) was employed in the final set, which was compared with the existing ones: EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L cross-walk.

Data from 1252 respondents (11,480 composite time trade-off valuations and 8764 discrete choice experiment pairs) were collected over the period June to October 2016. The final model accounted for random parameters, error scaling with fat tails, censoring at − 1, unwillingness to trade in time trade-off by the religious people and Cauchy distribution in discrete choice experiments. Pain/discomfort impacts the utility most: the disutility equals 0.575 when at level 5. In the value set, 4.4% of EQ-5D-5L states are worse than dead. The new value set has a comparable range (minimum of − 0.590 compared to − 0.523) and the same ordering of the first three dimensions (pain/discomfort, mobility, self-care) as the EQ-5D-3L value set and the EQ-5D-5L cross-walk value set. Moreover, it is more sensitive to a moderate decline in health.

The new value set supports consistency with past decisions in cost-utility studies, while offering a better assessment of even moderate improvements in health. It could represent an option for Central and Eastern Europe countries lacking their own value sets.