ISPOR Good Practice Task Force Recommendations on Valuing HRQoL of Children & Adolescents in Economic Evaluation Open Meeting (Pediatric Utilities)

Speaker(s)

Donna Rowen, MSc, PhD, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, Nancy Joy Devlin, PhD, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, Louis S. Matza, PhD, Evidera, Bethesda, MD, USA and Elly Stolk, PhD, EuroQol Research Foundation, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Methods guidelines for economic evaluation by international HTA agencies lack guidance specific to child HRQoL utilities, or implicitly assume that what is recommended for valuation of adult HRQoL is also appropriate for children and adolescents. Yet there are a number of methods issues specific to the valuation of HRQoL in children that do not arise in the valuation of adult HRQoL. The methods used to preference-weight pediatric HRQoL instruments differ in important ways that decision makers may not be aware of.

There are important gaps in both methods research and guidance from decision makers about pediatric HRQoL utilities for use in economic evaluation. ISPOR launched Good Practice Task Force on pediatric utilities to address these issues. This forum will highlight the principal methods issues concerning:

  1. Whose stated preferences are relevant to the preference weighting of pediatric HRQoL states?
  2. What perspective respondents should be asked to adopt in imagining and valuing pediatric HRQoL?
  3. What preference elicitation methods should be used? and
  4. To what extent is the comparability and consistency of health state utilities for adult and child HRQoL important for their use in QALY estimation, economic evaluation and decision making?

Audience feedback will be sought on the overall approach to the identification of good practice in pediatric utilities including our preliminary recommendations. Good practice concerning pediatric utilities inevitably involves both HEOR science and normative considerations. Given the pivotal role of value judgements in methods choices concerning pediatric utilities, consultation with local HTA bodies is essential both to ensure that utilities are ‘fit for purpose’, and to ensure that decision makers are well informed about the role and implications of value judgements when establishing methods guidelines. We conclude by identifying evidence gaps where further research is required to improve the scientific basis for pediatric utilities.