OBJECTIVES: To determine whether health-related quality of life (HRQoL) data exist that can inform economic evaluations of medicines according to the South African Pharmacoeconomic Guidelines, and describe the publication attributes.

METHODS: The systematic review was conducted using Medline, the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection and the South African SCieLO collection via the WoS Platform, and in the Cochrane Library. The validated health state utility values search filter by Arber et al. was adapted to the WoS databases and Cochrane Library. No time restrictions were applied but only English and Afrikaans language papers were included. Reference list of retrieved systematic reviews and conference proceedings in the HRQoL research field were searched. Results were exported into Excel, and duplicate records removed before screening by two independent reviewers. Analyses were conducted in Excel and the WoS Platform. The study protocol was registered on PROSPERO prior to executing the searches in January 2019.

RESULTS: 126 articles were retrieved, spanning 1996 to 2018. Just over 75% of publications were from the last decade. The journal published in most often was 'Quality of Life Research' (7 articles, 6%). The most prolific researcher in this field was J. Jelsma at the University of Cape Town (18 publications, 14%), with the most output by the University of Cape Town (n=34, 27%). On average, 4 authors contributed to a publication (range:1-16). South African institutions contributed the most to this field (n=92, 74%) but 30 other countries were also involved. The biggest funding source was the National Research Foundation of South Africa (n=11) and the most frequently cited article related to the development of the EQ-5D-Y (total citations =171, averaging 17 per year).

CONCLUSIONS: There is an increasing trend in publications reporting HRQoL in a South African setting, with a strong contribution to the field by researchers and institutions in South Africa.