OBJECTIVES: The CarerQol-7D instrument can be used in economic evaluations to measure the care-related quality of life of informal caregivers. The CarerQol-7D includes two positive dimensions (fulfilment and support) and five negative dimensions of caregiving (relational problems, mental health problems, physical health problems, financial problems, and problems with daily activities), using three-level answering scales (no, some, a lot of problems). The second part of the questionnaire, the CarerQol VAS, measures happiness of caregivers on a horizontal visual analogue scale ranging from 0 (completely unhappy) to 10 (completely happy). At the moment, tariff sets for the CarerQol-7D instrument are only available in Australia, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK, and US. The objective of our study was to develop tariff sets for the CarerQol-7D instrument for Hungary, Poland and Slovenia and to compare these to the existing value sets.

METHODS: Discrete choice experiments were carried out in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. Data were collected in an online survey between November 2018 and January 2019, in representative samples of 1,000 respondents per country. Tariffs were calculated from coefficient estimates from panel mixed multinomial logit models with random parameters.

RESULTS: All seven CarerQol-7D domains contributed significantly to the utility associated with different caregiving situations. Attributes valued highest were “Physical health” (tariffs for no problems were between 15.6-21.6), “Mental health” (18.1-19.4) and “Fulfilment” (15.5-22.9). Value sets were comparable across the countries, although in Poland “A lot of fulfilment” was valued higher (22.9) than in Hungary (16.3) and Slovenia (15.5). Compared to existing value sets, “Fulfilment” was more important, while “Financial problems” were less important, in the tariff sets of these three Central European countries.

CONCLUSIONS: Country specific tariff sets are now available for the Hungarian, Polish and Slovenian versions of the CarerQol-7D instrument. This facilitates including the impact of informal care in economic evaluations.