A Study on Health Utility Mapping Model of the Generalized Quality of Life Measurement Scale with Chinese Medicine Characteristics

Background: and Objective The lack of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)-related health utility measurement tools has hindered the expansion and research of TCM in China. The Chinese Health Status (CHS) scale, a general health status assessment scale developed in conjunction with the TCM theory, finds wide applications in clinical practice; however, it cannot be directly used to measure the patient’s health state because it lacks a utility score system. Here, we developed a utility mapping model of the CHS Scale, based on the Chinese cultural background as well as the theory and connotation of TCM, to obtain the health utility values. This study provides a methodological basis for future research on the pharmacoeconomics of Chinese medicine using cost-utility analysis. Methods: Based on real data from medical institutions in Hunan, alternative mapping models from the CHS scale to the EQ-5D-3L were constructed using ordinary least squares, Tobit models, generalised linear models and quantile regression methods, and the mapping model with the best explanatory and predictive power was selected for further analysis. Results: The 1200 cases included in this study were randomly divided into the construction set and the validation set based on their size. In the construction set, 24 alternative models were constructed using four econometric methods and six model types. In the validation set, these 24 alternative models were evaluated using the following evaluation indexes: model fit superiority, mean absolute error, and root mean square error. The highest prediction accuracy was found for regression fitting with ordinary least squares and model 6. Spearman rank correlation test showed that the observed and predicted values in the high correlation, with indicators MAE = 0.0590, RMSE = 0.1045, ME = 4.64e-09, AE > 0.05 (37.83%), and AE > 0.1 (17.33%) were within the acceptable range and at a better level. Conclusions: The final mapping model predicted the utility values and were compared them with the observed values. The distributions were found to be similar, and the observed values were highly correlated with the predicted values in the medium. The fit was significantly accurate, acceptable and could be applied to the pharmacoeconomic evaluation of TCM in the future to obtain the health utility values of patients through the CHS mapping scale.