PURPOSE: Many health conditions have profound impacts on the quality of life of informal caregivers and family members which may be alleviated by effective treatment. However, our ability to capture these benefits in economic evaluations is hindered by uncertainty about decision-makers’ attitudes toward their inclusion, issues related to how they may be incorporated into economic models, and the availability of suitable utility data and measures for caregivers / family members. This workshop aims to answer common questions related to these issues and discuss questions and experience from the audience, as well as to outline ongoing research in the field.

DESCRIPTION: The Discussion Leaders’ presentations will consider common questions, for example:

• Dr Knight of NICE will discuss whether decision-makers allow such benefits to be included in cost-utility analyses, and whether they can they be included in the basecase analysis or only in scenario analysis.
• Professor Brazier will consider how caregiver / family member utility can be measured, and whether preference-based measures designed for patients or existing caregiver quality of life measures are appropriate for measurement of caregiver/family member utility
• Dr Wolowacz will consider how utility estimates for caregivers / family members can be incorporated into economic evaluations.

This workshop will be of value for researchers interested in quality of life research, health utility estimation, economic evaluation and/or health technology assessment.