Peasgood, T. orcid.org/0000-0001-8024-7801, Devlin, N. orcid.org/0000-0002-1561-5361, Ludwig, K. orcid.org/0000-0002-4306-4667 et al. (5 more authors) (2025) How well do participants understand the questions asked in the Online Personal Utility Functions (OPUF) approach? A cognitive debrief of the EQ-HWB-S (EQ Health and Wellbeing Short version) valuation. Quality of Life Research. ISSN 0962-9343
Abstract
Purpose
Online elicitation of Personal Utility Functions (OPUF) is an innovative approach to valuing health states. OPUF uses a combination of ranking, swing-weighting, levels-rating and anchoring dead tasks. Little is known about how participants interpret and engage with OPUF tasks. This study aimed to address this gap.
Method
Cognitive debrief interviews, which included ‘think-aloud’ and probing questions, were undertaken in the UK to understand how members of the public engage with OPUF when used to value the EQ-HWB-S (EQ Health and Wellbeing Short version). Coding drew upon a Framework approach, with final codes including an assessment of how participants engaged with each of the five OPUF tasks based on whether (1) they completed as expected, (2) minor concerns were identified or (3) major concerns were identified. The presence of major concerns was judged to undermine the validity of responses.
Results
All 27 interviews were identified to have at least minor concern and 18 (67%) were identified as having major concerns. Major concerns were identified in four of the tasks: ranking (in 19% of interviews), swing-weighting (30%), levels-rating (56%), anchoring dead task (48%). Older participants were more likely to have major errors.
Conclusion
Think-aloud and probing interviews with 27 participants completing the OPUF identified multiple concerns, to the extent that their data is unlikely to be a valid reflection of their preferences. The extent of concerns identified here suggests the need for interviewer led data collection within OPUF to ensure data quality.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Online elicitation of Personal Utility Functions (OPUF); Cognitive debrief; Think-aloud; EQ-HWB-S; Valuation health; Interview; Online data collection |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Medicine and Population Health |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 22 May 2025 14:55 |
Last Modified: | 22 May 2025 14:55 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s11136-025-03989-w |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:227029 |