Deriving a preference-weighted measure for people with hypoglycaemia from the Hypo-RESOLVE-QoL

Objective

Hypoglycaemia impacts the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of people living with diabetes (PwD), and existing preference-weighted measures do not capture all important aspects. The study aimed to generate a preference-weighted measure capturing the HRQoL impact of hypoglycaemia in PwD.

Methods

Items for the health state classification system were selected from the hypoglycaemia-specific Hypo-RESOLVE QoL measure using: relevance in cognitive interviews, translatability, suitability for valuation, endorsement by patient advisors and experts, and psychometric performance in a large survey of PwD. Second, an online valuation survey using discrete choice experiment (DCE) with survival attribute was conducted with members of the UK public. DCE data was modelled using conditional logit analysis, and results scaled to produce preference weights for the classification system on a scale where 1 is equivalent to full health, 0 is equivalent to dead, and below zero is worse than dead.

Results

The health state classification system consists of eight items reflecting the factors of the Hypo-RESOLVE QoL (psychological, social and physical aspects). The valuation survey was completed by 1000 members of the UK public, representative for age and sex. Good understanding of DCE tasks was demonstrated. The item “do what I want to do in my life” had the largest preference weight, and “find it hard to stop thinking about my glucose levels” had the smallest.

Conclusions

This study generated Hypo-RESOLVE QoL-8D, a preference-weighted measure capturing the HRQoL impact of hypoglycaemia in PwD, with UK general public preference-weights. The measure can be generated from Hypo-RESOLVE QoL data.