Chun Fan Lee1, Raymond Ng2, Nan Luo3, Yin Bun Cheung4,5,6. 1. School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, 1/F Patrick Manson Building, 7 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. fanlee@hku.hk. 2. Department of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Center, Singapore, Singapore. 3. Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore. 4. Center for Quantitative Medicine, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore. 5. Department of Biostatistics, Singapore Clinical Research Institute, Singapore, Singapore. 6. Center for Child Health Research, University of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) measures are commonly mapped to a value that represents a utility for economic evaluation via regression models, which may lead to shrinkage of the variance. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop and compare conversion functions that map the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) total score to the EuroQoL 5-Dimensions, 5-Levels (EQ-5D-5L) utility value via four methods. METHODS: We used the HRQoL scores of 238 Singapore patients with breast cancer to develop the conversion function for the equipercentile, linear equating, mean rank and ordinary least squares (OLS) methods. We compared the distributions of the observed values and the four sets of mapped values and performed regression analyses to assess whether the association with risk factors was preserved by utility values derived from mapping. RESULTS: At baseline, the observed EQ-5D-5L utility value had a mean ± standard deviation (SD) of 0.820 ± 0.152, and 24.8% of the respondents attained a value of 1. The OLS method (mean 0.820; SD 0.112; proportion 0%) better agreed with the observed data than the equipercentile (mean 0.831; SD 0.152; proportion 23.5%), linear equating (mean 0.814; SD 0.145; proportion 11.8%) and mean rank method (mean 0.821; SD 0.147; proportion 23.9%). The significance of association was preserved for all parameters involved in the regression analyses by the equipercentile and linear equating methods, but the mean rank and OLS methods were inconsistent with the observed data for one and two parameters, respectively. CONCLUSION: The problem of shrinkage in the variance occurred in the OLS method, but it provided an unbiased estimate for the mean and better agreement. Among the other three linking methods, the mean rank method better described the distribution, whereas the equipercentile and linear equating methods better assessed the association with risk factors.
INTRODUCTION: Health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) measures are commonly mapped to a value that represents a utility for economic evaluation via regression models, which may lead to shrinkage of the variance. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop and compare conversion functions that map the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) total score to the EuroQoL 5-Dimensions, 5-Levels (EQ-5D-5L) utility value via four methods. METHODS: We used the HRQoL scores of 238 Singapore patients with breast cancer to develop the conversion function for the equipercentile, linear equating, mean rank and ordinary least squares (OLS) methods. We compared the distributions of the observed values and the four sets of mapped values and performed regression analyses to assess whether the association with risk factors was preserved by utility values derived from mapping. RESULTS: At baseline, the observed EQ-5D-5L utility value had a mean ± standard deviation (SD) of 0.820 ± 0.152, and 24.8% of the respondents attained a value of 1. The OLS method (mean 0.820; SD 0.112; proportion 0%) better agreed with the observed data than the equipercentile (mean 0.831; SD 0.152; proportion 23.5%), linear equating (mean 0.814; SD 0.145; proportion 11.8%) and mean rank method (mean 0.821; SD 0.147; proportion 23.9%). The significance of association was preserved for all parameters involved in the regression analyses by the equipercentile and linear equating methods, but the mean rank and OLS methods were inconsistent with the observed data for one and two parameters, respectively. CONCLUSION: The problem of shrinkage in the variance occurred in the OLS method, but it provided an unbiased estimate for the mean and better agreement. Among the other three linking methods, the mean rank method better described the distribution, whereas the equipercentile and linear equating methods better assessed the association with risk factors.
Authors: Yin Bun Cheung; Hui Xing Tan; Vivian Wei Wang; Nagaendran Kandiah; Nan Luo; Gerald C H Koh; Hwee Lin Wee Journal: Qual Life Res Date: 2018-09-01 Impact factor: 4.147
Authors: Yuan Shi; Jennifer Thompson; A Sarah Walker; Nicholas I Paton; Yin Bun Cheung Journal: Health Qual Life Outcomes Date: 2019-05-10 Impact factor: 3.186