A systematic review of health state utility values in Thai cancer patients

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Health state utility value (HSUV) is an important outcome of cost-utility analysis. The EQ-5D is commonly used to elicit the HSUV of economic analyses based on the recommendations of the Thai health technology assessment guideline. Therefore, this study aimed to establish a dataset of utility values in patients with liver, lung, colorectal, breast, and cervical cancers at different stages in Thailand.

Areas covered

In total, 25 studies were identified from PubMed, Scopus, Thai Library Integrated System, Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program, and Health System Research Institute from inception to May 2021. The EQ-5D 3 Level Version was commonly used to identify the HSUVs of Thai patients with cancer. Meanwhile, the use of the EQ-5D 5 Level Version was supported by psychometric testing. However, mapping techniques between disease-specific and health preference-based instruments was utilized.

Expert opinion

This study showed that patients with colorectal cancer had the highest HSUVs for both the earlier and metastatic stages. Additionally, the differences in HSUVs were found among studies because of the different chemotherapy treatments and elicitation methods. Therefore, it is generally recommended that health economists use HSUVs derived from using the same method for an economic evaluation.

KEYWORDS:

• Health state utility values
• standard gamble
• time trade-off
• EQ-5D
• Thai cancer patients

Article highlights

• The HSUV is the main outcome for cost-utility analysis. It is often estimated using a direct or indirect method. However, the direct method is a time-consuming process and requires well-trained interviewers to accomplish the task. Therefore, the indirect method is used to elicit the HSUV for economic analyses.

• This systematic review included studies investigating HSUVs among various types of cancers, including breast, cervix, colorectal, liver, and lung cancers at various stages.

• This study showed that the differences in HSUVs were generally due to the different cancer treatments and elicitation methods. Additionally, the EQ-5D-3L is commonly used to elicit the HSUV for Thai patients with cancer.

• Future studies investigating whether the HSUVs from various approaches might affect the QALY or ICER for economic analyses are greatly encouraged.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Authors’ contributions

K Kangwanrattanakul was involved in the literature search, review and data extraction, drafting, and final approval of this manuscript to be published.

Data availability statement

The data analyzed and reported in this manuscript is not available for public sharing.

Additional information

Funding

The Health Systems Research Institute (HSRI) in Thailand granted financial support for this study (grant number: 64-066). The sponsor had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis andinterpretation of data, the writing of the report or the submission of the article for publication.