Health Utility and Quality of Life

Health utility and quality of life provide researchers and decision-makers with the ability to measure improvements in health outcomes beyond mortality figures. These measures are significant in health technology assessments because they also capture issues of quality of life from the perspective of the patient.

Health-related quality of life may be measured using non-preference or preference-based approaches. Preference-based approaches measure quality of life using utility, a global measure of health status, scaled from 0-1. Utility is used to calculate quality-adjusted life years (QALY) in cost-effectiveness analyses and decision models.

THETA investigators have particular interest in:

• developing population-based reference values for utilities
• measuring disease/condition-specific utilities
• developing and assessing quality of life and health outcome scales using classical and modern measurement methods, including Rasch and Mokken analyses
• exploring the relationship between patient and surrogate values/utilities, and
• measuring utilities in special populations (e.g., patients with HIV, Hepatitis C and Alzheimer's Disease, and children).

Grants

Naglie, Gary, Tomlinson, George, Hogan D, Freedman M, Krahn, Murray, Irvine J, Patterson C, Borrie M, Streiner D, Black S, MacKnight C, Bergman H, Beattie L, Bacher Y, Byszewski A, Ritvo P. Canadian Alzheimer's Disease Quality of Life Study (Renewal). Canadian Institutes of Health Research $211,956.

Naglie, Gary, Tomlinson, George, Hogan D, Freedman M, Krahn, Murray, Irvine J, Patterson C, Borrie M, Streiner D, Black S, MacKnight C, Bergman H, Beattie L, Bacher Y, Byszewski A, Ritvo P. Longitudinal Canadian Alzheimer's Disease Quality of Life Study. Canadian Institutes of Health Research $50,000.

Publications

van der Velde, Gabrielle, Beaton D, Hogg-Johnson S, Hurwitz E, Tennant A. Rasch Analysis Provides New Insights Into the Measurement Properties of the Neck Disability Index. Arthritis Care & Research 2009; 61(4):544-551.

Bremner, Karen E., Chong CAKY, Tomlinson, George, Alibhai, Shabbir, Krahn, Murray. A review and meta-analysis of prostate cancer utilities. Medical Decision Making 2007; 27:288-298.

Bremner, Karen E., Tomlinson, George, Krahn, Murray. Marker states and a health state prompt provide modest improvements in the reliability and validity of the standard gamble and rating scale in prostate cancer patients. Quality of Life Research 2007; 16(10):1665-75.

Bremner, Karen E., Chong CA, Tomlinson, George, Alibhai, Shabbir, Krahn, Murray. A review and meta-analysis of prostate cancer utilities. Medical Decision Making 2007; 27(3):288-98.

Krahn, Murray, Bremner, Karen E., Tomlinson, George, Ritvo P, Irvine J, Naglie, Gary. Responsiveness of disease-specific and generic utility instruments in prostate cancer patients. Quality of Life Research 2007; 16(3):509-22.

Grootendorst, Paul, Marshall D, Pericak D, Bellamy N, Feeny D, Torrance G. A model to estimate Health Utilities Index Mark 3 utility scores from WOMAC index scores in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Journal of Rheumatology 2007; 34:534–42.

Krahn, Murray, Bremner, Karen E., Tomlinson, George, Ritvo P, Irvine J, Naglie, Gary. Responsiveness of disease-specific and generic utility instruments in prostate cancer patients. Qual Life Res 2006; :.

Naglie, Gary, Tomlinson, George, Tansey C, Irvine J, Ritvo P, Black S, Freedman M, Silberfeld M, Krahn, Murray. Utility-based quality of life measures in Alzheimer's disease. Quality of Life Research 2006; 15:631-643.

Ungar, Wendy, Mirabelli C, Cousins M, Boydell KM. A qualitative analysis of a dyad approach to quality of life measurement in children with asthma. Social Science & Medicine 2006; 63(9):2354-66.

Austin PC, Tu J, Mamdani, Muhammad. A Comparison of Propensity Score Methods: A Case-Study Estimating the Effectiveness of Post-AMI Statin Use. Statistics in Medicine 2006; 25(12):2084-106.

Urbach, David R., Harnish JL, Herold McIlroy J, Streiner DL. A measure of quality of life after abdominal surgery. Quality of Life Research 2006; 15(6):1053-61.

Ritvo P, Irvine J, Naglie, Gary, Tomlinson, George, Bezjak A, Matthew A, Trachtenberg J, Krahn, Murray. Reliability and validity of the PORPUS, a combined psychometric and utility-based quality-of-life instrument for prostate cancer. J. Clin Epidemiol 2005 May; 58(5):466-74.

Urbach, David R., Tomlinson, George, Harnish JL, Martino R, Diamant NE. A measure of disease-specific health-related quality of life for achalasia. American Journal of Gastroenterology 2005; 100(8):1668-76.

Urbach, David R., Harnish JL, Long G. Short-term health-related quality of life after abdominal surgery: A conceptual framework. Surgical Innovation 2005; 12(3):243-247.

Bell, Chaim, Chapman RH, Stone PW, Sandberg EA, Neumann PJ. An off-the-shelf-help list: A comprehensive catalogue of preference weights from published cost-utility analyses. Medical Decision Making 2001; 21:288-94.

Team