Guideline 57 - Supporting Material: EuroQol or EQ-5D

Guideline 57: Cardiac rehabilitation - Supporting material

EuroQol or EQ-5D

Website address - http://www.euroqol.org/

What is EQ-5D?

EQ-5D is a standardised instrument for use as a measure of health outcome. Applicable to a wide range of health conditions and treatments, it provides a simple descriptive profile and a single index value for health status that can be used in the clinical and economic evaluation of health care as well as population health surveys. EQ-5D has been specially designed to complement other quality of life measures such as the SF-36, NHP, SIP or disease-specific measures. The current 3-level, 5-dimensional format of the EQ-5D will remain unchanged for the immediate future.

EQ-5D is designed for self-completion by respondents and is ideally suited for use in postal surveys, in clinics and face to face interviews. It is cognitively simple, taking only a few minutes to complete. Instructions to respondents are included in the questionnaire.
Although EQ-5D was intended for self-completion, the EuroQol Group recognizes that this is not always appropriate. Guidelines for observer, telephone and proxy use are in preparation. Please contact the EuroQol Business Management for more information.

How is EQ-5D used in practice?

EQ-5D is designed for self-completion by patients and is especially useful for postal surveys. It is cognitively simple, taking only a few minutes to complete. EQ-5D records:

the level of problems (if any) on each of the 5 dimensions on the EQ-5D self-classifier (page 2).
the patient's rating of their health status using the EQ VAS (page 3).
background information (optional) (page 4).

How can the information be used?

The responses from EQ-5D can be used in the following ways:

The descriptive data from page 2 may be used as a profile indicating problems across the 5 dimensions, either through time for a particular respondent or cross-sectionally, comparing outcomes for different respondents.
The descriptive data from page 2 can generate a weighted health index, based on tables of values derived from general population samples.
The score on the self-rated EQ VAS indicating the patient's own assessment of their health state may be used to analyze changes in the health status of individuals or groups of individuals over time.

Permission for use

The EuroQol Group has decided that EQ-5D is in the public domain and may be used without cost provided that the research is not funded by the pharmaceutical industry or other commercial organizations (e.g., manufacturers of medical devices).

In these instances the Group requests "sponsorship" for its activities. This is based on the number of languages required. The company involved and the EuroQol Group Foundation make a formal agreement whereby the company gives an undertaking to use only officially translated versions of EQ-5D. The agreement provides the possibility to use EQ-5D in specific languages on a world-wide basis for a three year period. Companies who wish to access all translated versions of EQ-5D (as well as those becoming available within a three year specified period) may also make a "fixed amount" agreement (please contact the EQ Business Management for further details).

In general it is recommended that EuroQol Group members should be involved in substantial commercial research projects where EQ-5D is being used to ensure optimal use of the instrument. In this way the active scientific experience of the Group may be utilized.
Arrangements regarding use of EQ-5D language versions in a commercial context should be made exclusively with the EQ Group Business Management.

For further information or questions contact:

Dr. Frank de Charro
EuroQol Business Manager
PO BOX 4443
3006 AK Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 10 408 1545
Fax: +31 10 452 5303
E-mail: fdecharro@compuserve.com

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