Published Jun 17, 2013

Milano and Napoli, Italy - The Italian health care system is starting to take information on HRQoL and QALYs into consideration when deciding on the utilization of available resources. Although comparisons of different national value sets have demonstrated the existence of country specificity of utilities, in Italy, a specific value set was still missing.  In the study “Italian Population-Based Values of EQ-5D Health States,” published in Value in Health, researchers from Milan and Napoli created the first Italian general population EQ-5D value set, thus offering the possibility of its use in cost-utility analyses targeted at the Italian health care system. In their study, authors Scalone et.al, estimated the first value set for the calculation of Italian-specific QALYs, based on preferences elicited on EQ-5D health states using the time trade-off technique. They followed the Standard EuroQoL Measurement and Valuation of Health (MVH) protocol revised in 2009, and involved a sample of the Italian general adult population representative of age, gender and geographical distribution. By investigating several regression models, the researchers were able to determine which one provides the most logically consistent estimates and with a good level of statistical efficiency. Lorenzo Mantovani, DSc, Senior Researcher at the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University of Naples, says, “With the publication of this study, Italian researchers and policy makers will be able to use QALYs calculated with the standard reference tool EQ-5D, finally, based on Italian-specific social tariffs.” The study was financed by the EuroQol and CHARTA Foundations.

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