Development of Chinese VAS Value Set for EQ-5D-3L and Difference analysis with the TTO Value Set Based on Same Nationally Representative Sample

Abstract Objective: To develop a Chinese VAS value set for EQ-5D-3L and compare it with the TTO value set based on nationally representative sample. Methods: An adapted Measurement and Valuation of Health (MVH) protocol was applied with VAS method. EQ-5D-3L was used in face-to-face interviews conducted by trained interviewers with participants selected via multi-stage stratified clustered random sample. Fifteen hypothetical health statuses (11 random states in MVH protocol, plus 11111, 33333, unconscious and death) were assigned for assessment individually. Ordinary least square, general least square and weighted least square models were constructed with or without N3. Four categories of indices, including quality of original data, distribution of rescaled values, goodness of fit of models, and distribution of predicted values were adopted to compare between Chinese VAS and TTO value sets.Results: All 5,939 participants aged 15 and over were interviewed; 5,884 eligible participants were included in constructing models. An OLS model that included ten dummy variables and a constant and without N3 was chosen as the best-fit VAS model (Adjusted R2=0.670). The mean absolute error was 0.0319, and the correlation coefficient between predicted and mean values was 0.9837. The curve of predicted value of VAS model was uniformly lower than that of Chinese TTO value set. Comparing with the TTO value set, VAS method had higher responsive rate, less inconsistency, lower skewed values and better goodness of fit values. Conclusions: VAS value set performed rationally in Chinese population for its simplicity, responsiveness and robustness. We recommend the VAS value set, Model 2, as the benchmark of scoring algorithm of HRQoL for Chinese population.