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EQ-5D-5L is More Responsive than EQ-5D-3L to Treatment Benefit of Cataract Surgery

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Abstract

Background

It is not clear whether 5-level EQ-5D (EQ-5D-5L) utilities based on recently developed value sets are more responsive than 3-level EQ-5D (EQ-5D-3L) utilities.

Objectives

The study aims were to compare (1) the responsiveness of EQ-5D-5L and EQ-5D-3L utilities and (2) the responsiveness of these utilities with the Short Form–6 Dimension (SF-6D) and Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) utilities to the treatment benefit of cataract surgery.

Methods

A total of 148 patients were interviewed before and after their cataract surgery using EQ-5D-3L, EQ-5D-5L, SF-6D, and HUI3. Responsiveness was assessed for all measures using the mean change (post-treatment—pre-treatment), standardized effect size (SES), standardized response mean (SRM), and F-statistic.

Results

Using the Singapore value sets, mean change for EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L utilities was 0.016 and 0.028, SES was 0.097 and 0.199; SRM was 0.091 and 0.196; and F-statistic was 1.2 and 5.7, respectively. Similar trends were observed using the UK/England EQ-5D value sets, although the magnitude was slightly smaller. The mean change, SES, SRM and F-statistics for SF-6D (UK value set) were 0.020, 0.234, 0.249, and 9.2, respectively. The values of mean change, SES, SRM and F-statistics for HUI3 (Canada value set) were 0.080, 0.472, 0.474, and 33.3, respectively.

Conclusions

The EQ-5D-5L utilities tend to be more responsive than the EQ-5D-3L utilities to treatment benefits of cataract surgery. The HUI3 utilities are more responsive than both the EQ-5D-5L and SF-6D, and SF-6D utilities may be slightly more responsive than the EQ-5D-5L for assessing patients undergoing cataract surgery.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the patients of this study for their participation. This study is partially funded by the EuroQol Research Foundation (EQ Project 2016310). Nan Luo and Mathieu F. Janssen are EuroQol Group members who received research Grants from the EuroQol Group. Mihir Gandhi, Marcus Ang, Kelvin Teo, Chee Wai Wong, Yvonne Chung-Hsi Wei, and Rachel Lee-Yin Tan declare no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

MA, MFJ, and NL jointly conceived the study. KT, CWW, and YCHW contributed in the study design and patient recruitment. RLYT contributed in the data collection form design, patient recruitment and data management. MG analyzed the data and drafted the first version of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marcus Ang.

Ethics declarations

Funding

This study is partially funded by the EuroQol Research Foundation (EQ Project 2016310).

Conflict of interest

Nan Luo and Mathieu F. Janssen are EuroQol Group members who received research grants from the EuroQol Group. Mihir Gandhi, Marcus Ang, Kelvin Teo, Chee Wai Wong, Yvonne Chung-Hsi Wei, and Rachel Lee-Yin Tan declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Gandhi, M., Ang, M., Teo, K. et al. EQ-5D-5L is More Responsive than EQ-5D-3L to Treatment Benefit of Cataract Surgery. Patient 12, 383–392 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40271-018-00354-7

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