Review of generic preference-based scales for health-related quality of life at the universal scale / 中国卫生政策研究

ABSTRACT

Objective: To conduct an ample review of the existing generic preference-based measures for health-related quality of life around the globe. Methods: Databases including PubMed，Embase，CNKI and WanFang Data, literature retrieval and information extraction were carried out on relevant studies of the universal health utility scale published until April 2020 worldwide，and all the existing generic health utility measures were identified. The original development articles included in the measures were further searched to extract the basic information of the measures，the conduction process，and the structure of the health state descriptive system. All of the dimensions included in the measures were summarized and analyzed from three aspects of physical (physiological)，mental (psychological)，and societal，respectively. Results: Through searching and screening，a total of 36 articles (both in Chinese and English literatures) were obtained, among which 18 generic preference-based measures were identified and 30 original search and development articles of these 18 measures were extracted. The number of dimensions of these 18 measures varied between the range of 3~15，the number of levels under each dimension ranged between 2 and 7，and the total number of health states that could be described by these measures amounted between 64 and 2.37 × 1023.The dimensions describing the physiological aspect in health were involved by all of 18 measures，while the dimensions describing psychological health and societal aspects in health were involved by only 16 and 10 measures，respectively. The physiological，psychological and societal dimensions included 10，4, and 5 specific categories，respectively. Two ways of conducting the health state descriptive system were identified, which were mainly based on the existing data and materials，and through the construction of the items pool combined with psychometric methods to determine the included dimensions of the measures. Conclusion:In recent years，more emphasis on the measurement of mental and societal health on the basis of physiological aspect was included in the newly developed measures，and the construction process of the health state descriptive system is becoming more and more standardized.