Nationally Representative Quality-of-Life Weights

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Currently, no information exists on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of a nationally representative sample of the US population. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is the first survey to contain a question that would allow for the calculation of HRQOL weights for a nationally representative sample of almost 23,000 Americans. We propose to use the visual analogue scale (VAS) question from the MEPS HC- 039 2000 Full Year Population Characteristics, released November, 2002, and a time trade-off derived tariff of weights for the EuroQol to estimate representative HRQOL weights for the US population by demographic characteristic and by health status. Providing HRQOL weights by demographic characteristic will enable cost-utility analysts more accurately to calculate quality adjusted life year (QALY) changes because nationally representative US baseline information would now be available. Providing HRQOL weights for the standard self-reported health status question ("Would you say that your health today in general is: (A) excellent, (B) very good, (C) good, (D) fair, (F) poor") would increase the usefulness of the large, population surveys (the CPS, SIPP, Health and Retirement Survey, etc.) that ask a self-reported health-status question, but obtain no information of HRQOL. If a researcher were investigating some policy change using any of these surveys, the availability of representative HRQOL weights would allow him/ her to calculate not only the mortality implications, but also the morbidity implications in a way that could be combined to arrive at the QALY implications of the policy change. There would be a number of other uses for these weights. For example, if this information were collected and presented periodically, it maybe used to characterize how the health of the US population was changing over time.