The impact of disease adaptation information on general population values for rheumatoid arthritis states

Economic evaluation of healthcare technologies uses values for hypothetical health states elicited from the general population rather than patients. However, they may not consider adaptation. This study explored the extent to which the general population changes their initial values, and the factors that influenced this change, after being informed about adaptation. Three rheumatoid arthritis (RA) states were used for illustration. Two respondent groups were interviewed. The Initially Uninformed Group initially valued the RA states. An adaptation exercise followed, where they listened to recordings of patients discussing how they adapted; they then valued the same states again. The Informed Group underwent the adaptation exercise before valuing the states. The difference between the valuations was examined using t-tests. A multivariate regression was developed to assess the factors that impacted individuals to change their initial values. After undergoing the adaptation exercise, the Initially Uninformed Group statistically increased their values for the RA states. When the second values of the Initially Uninformed Group were compared to the first values of the Informed Group, there were no statistical differences, implying that there was no interviewer effect. Younger and healthier individuals were more likely to increase their initial values after being informed about adaptation.