Published Jul 21, 2015

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia - Malaysia is a developing country with chronic disease patterns that are becoming more similar to those of developed countries. Heart disease is increasingly common and acute coronary syndrome (ACS), or “heart attacks”, are one way that patients present themselves in emergency rooms. While economic evaluation is gaining importance, relatively little research has been published on the health utility of Malaysian patients among patients with cardiovascular disease. Azmi Burhani Consulting, Veras Research and the Sarawak General Hospital Heart Centre worked together to estimate the health utility of patients with ACS while comparing EQ-5D utility tariffs derived from Malaysian and UK populations. As described in the article, “Quality of Life among Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome in Malaysia,“ published in Value in Health Regional Issues Volume 6 focusing on Asia, the study showed that the health utility of Malaysian ACS patients improved from the time of admission to 12 months post-discharge. However, the improvement in utility differed substantially depending on the utility tariff used.