European Journal of Health Economics 

About: European Journal of Health Economics is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Health economics & Public health. It has an ISSN identifier of 1618-7598. Over the lifetime, 1772 publications have been published receiving 41381 citations.

Once we have it, will we use it? A European survey on willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Abstract: In this editorial, we provide some first insights into this willingness to be vaccinated, based on a multi-country European study

A single European currency for EQ-5D health states. Results from a six-country study.

Abstract: The EQ-5D questionnaire is a widely used generic instrument for describing and valuing health that was developed by the EuroQol Group. A primary objective of the EuroQol Group is the investigation of values for health states in the general population in different countries. As part of the EuroQol enterprise 11 population surveys were carried out in six Western European countries (Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK) to value health states as defined by the EQ-5D using a standardised visual analogue scale (EQ-5D VAS). This contribution reports how a European set of general population preference weights was derived from the data collected in the 11 valuation studies. The scores from this set of preference weights can be applied to generate a VAS-based weighted health status index for all the potential 243 EQ-5D health states for use in multi-national studies. To estimate the preference weights a multi-level regression analysis was performed on 82,910 valuations of 44 EQ-5D health states elicited from 6,870 respondents. Stable and plausible solutions were found for the model parameters. The R(2) value was 75%. The analysis showed that the major source of variance, apart from 'random error', was variance between individuals (28.3% of the total residual variance). These results suggest that VAS values for EQ-5D health states in six Western European countries can be described by a common model.

A review of studies mapping (or cross walking) non-preference based measures of health to generic preference-based measures

Abstract: Clinical studies use a wide variety of health status measures to measure health related quality of life, many of which cannot be used in cost-effectiveness analysis using cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY). Mapping is one solution that is gaining popularity as it enables health state utility values to be predicted for use in cost per QALY analysis when no preference-based measure has been included in the study. This paper presents a systematic review of current practice in mapping between non-preference based measures and generic preference-based measures, addressing feasibility and validity, circumstances under which it should be considered and lessons for future mapping studies. This review found 30 studies reporting 119 different models. Performance of the mappings functions in terms of goodness-of-fit and prediction was variable and unable to be generalised across instruments. Where generic measures are not regarded as appropriate for a condition, mapping does not solve this problem. Most testing in the literature occurs at the individual level yet the main purpose of these functions is to predict mean values for subgroups of patients, hence more testing is required.

Economic valuation of informal care. An overview of methods and applications

Abstract: Informal care makes up a significant part of the total amount of care provided to care recipients with chronic and terminal diseases. Still, informal care is often neglected in economic evaluations of health care programs. Probably this is related to the fact that the costs of informal care are to an important extent related to time inputs by relatives and friends of care recipients and time is not easy to value. Development of theoretically sound, yet easily applicable valuation methods is therefore important since ignoring the costs of informal care may lead to undesirable shifts between formal and informal care. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that providing informal care may lead to health problems for the caregiver, both in terms of morbidity and mortality. Until now these health effects have not been incorporated in economic evaluations. More attention for the identification and valuation of the full costs and (health) effects of informal care for the informal caregiver seems needed therefore. This contribution presents a critical evaluation of the available methods to incorporate informal care in economic evaluations.

Validating the EQ-5D with time trade off for the German population

Abstract: The aim of this survey study was to derive the societal values of the general public for the EuroQol EQ-5D. Using the same protocol as previously used in the United Kingdom, we compared the German values with the British. In face-to-face interviews a sample of 339 individuals in northern Germany valued 15 different health states from a sample of 36 states. Values were derived using the York MVH protocol for time trade-off (TTO) and a visual analogue scale (VAS). Values for all 243 health states of the EQ-5D were estimated by a regression model. The VAS values revealed close a resemblance to the British VAS results. German TTO values were higher than the British. This was especially the case for the worse health states. The results suggest that the TTO values are more related to national variables than values derived by VAS. The use of the TTO values of this investigation makes it possible to anticipate these cultural differences in studies carried out in Germany.