ASSESSING HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH VISION IMPAIRMENT USING THE EQ-5D-Y-3L INSTRUMENT IN BRAZIL
Author(s)
MILENE R. DA COSTA, MSc, PharmD, PhD1, Braulio Junior, MSc2, Márcia Pinto, PhD3, Marisa Da Silva Santos, PhD, MD2.
1STUDENT, INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE CARDIOLOGIA, RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, 2Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1STUDENT, INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE CARDIOLOGIA, RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, 2Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
OBJECTIVES: Blindness and visual impairment remain major global health challenges. In Brazil, they affect 0.5% of young children. In childhood, visual impairment adversely influences cognitive development, mobility, emotional well-being with important effects on an individual’s quality of life. This study aims to estimate utility values for pediatric ocular conditions in Brazil using the EQ-5D-Y-3L instrument.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study used data from the multicenter Views-QoL Study, conducted in healthcare facilities and a reference center for visual impairment and blindness located in the city of Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil between 2019 and 2020. Informal caregivers of children aged 1 to 15 years old who attended medical appointments during the study period were invited to participate. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect sociodemographic information and apply the EQ-5D-Y questionnaire. Utility scores were eliceted from EQ-5D-Y-3L responses using the Brazilian valuation set
RESULTS: A total of 165 caregivers completed the EQ-5D-Y-3L, reporting on children with a mean age of 5.8 years. The sample included 43 children with blindness, 70 with low vision, and 65 without visual impairment. Most participants were from middle-income households. Moderate to severe problems were most frequent among children with blindness, particularly for self-care, usual activities, and mobility dimensions. There were statistically significant differences in mean utility values across groups: 0.9328 (no impairment), 0.8426 (low vision), and 0.7322 (blindness) (p = 0.0001).
CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study in Brazil to evaluate the ability of the EQ-5D-Y-3L to detect changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among children with visual impairment. Our findings demonstrate that the instrument effectively distinguishes between groups with varying visual status.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study used data from the multicenter Views-QoL Study, conducted in healthcare facilities and a reference center for visual impairment and blindness located in the city of Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil between 2019 and 2020. Informal caregivers of children aged 1 to 15 years old who attended medical appointments during the study period were invited to participate. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect sociodemographic information and apply the EQ-5D-Y questionnaire. Utility scores were eliceted from EQ-5D-Y-3L responses using the Brazilian valuation set
RESULTS: A total of 165 caregivers completed the EQ-5D-Y-3L, reporting on children with a mean age of 5.8 years. The sample included 43 children with blindness, 70 with low vision, and 65 without visual impairment. Most participants were from middle-income households. Moderate to severe problems were most frequent among children with blindness, particularly for self-care, usual activities, and mobility dimensions. There were statistically significant differences in mean utility values across groups: 0.9328 (no impairment), 0.8426 (low vision), and 0.7322 (blindness) (p = 0.0001).
CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study in Brazil to evaluate the ability of the EQ-5D-Y-3L to detect changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among children with visual impairment. Our findings demonstrate that the instrument effectively distinguishes between groups with varying visual status.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2026-11, ISPOR Europe 2026, Vienna, Austria
Value in Health, Volume 29, Issue 12S
Code
HTA276
Topic
Economic Evaluation, Health Technology Assessment, Patient-Centered Research
Disease
No Additional Disease & Conditions/Specialized Treatment Areas, Pediatrics