Valuation of health states by the general public: feasibility of a standardized measurement procedure.

In the context of an international collaborative study we tested the feasibility of a utility measurement procedure in the Dutch general population. A postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 200 households in a town in the Netherlands (+/- 50,000 inh.). Respondents were requested to value 14 six-dimensional health states by means of visual analogue scaling (VAS). The response was satisfactory (57%), though about a fifth of those willing to complete the questionnaire did not manage to use a VAS to express their opinion. Inconsistent answers occurred relatively seldom. Generally consensus existed with regard to relative (ranking) and absolute values of different health states. These first results encourage us to go on with the development of this international instrument for the valuation of health states. We conclude the present instrument to be a feasible tool for valuation research, although questions relating to its measuring properties, as well as its reliability and validity remain to be answered.