Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: Health utility values (HUVs) serve as critical tools for evaluating disease burden, capturing societal preferences, and guiding resource allocation. However, recent nationwide data regarding regional variations in China remain scarce. This study aims to report HUVs for middle-aged and older adults across seven major geographical regions in China, providing precise inputs for economic evaluations and informing health equity policies.
METHODS: Data were derived from the 2020 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), which employed a multi-stage probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling strategy covering 150 counties across 28 provincial-level administrative units. Based on the EuroQol Group’s definitions of the five dimensions of health-related quality of life, we extracted data employing the EQ-5D-3L instrument and calculated HUVs according to the Chinese-specific value set. HUVs range from −0.170 to 1.000, where 1 indicates full health, 0 represents death, and negative values denote states worse than death. Descriptive statistics were performed to analyze HUV distributions stratified by gender and seven geographic regions.
RESULTS: The mean age of the 17,287 Chinese participants was 66.91±9.49 years. The mean HUV for the total population was 0.930 (SD=0.087), with an observed range of 0.170 to 1.000. Males reported higher HUVs (0.945±0.077) compared to females (0.917±0.092) (P<0.001). HUVs varied significantly across the seven geographical regions (P<0.001). The South region reported the highest HUVs (0.939±0.077), followed by East (0.936±0.084), Northeast (0.935±0.089), North (0.930±0.087), Central (0.928±0.087), and Southwest (0.922±0.093) regions showed intermediate values. The Northwest region reported the lowest HUVs (0.916±0.089).
CONCLUSIONS: This study provides region-specific HUVs for Chinese middle-aged and older adults, revealing a distinct geographic gradient in health-related quality of life. These data serve as a foundation for economic evaluations, guide healthcare resource allocation. The findings suggest that policymakers should prioritize regions with lower HUVs, specifically the Northwest and Southwest, to address disparities and promote health equity.