OBJECTIVES: Patients typically value their own health state higher than members of the general population. This study aims to explore whether the magnitude of disagreement between patient and population valuations in chronic low back pain patients differs by socio-demographic group and/or health status.

METHODS: Data were used of 5,037 chronic low back pain patients. The outcome was the disagreement between a patient’s preference for his/her own health state (i.e. patient valuation) and the general population’s preference for the patient’s health state (i.e. population valuation). Patient valuations were derived using the EQ-VAS. Population valuations were derived using the EQ-5D-3L and the Dutch VAS-based tariff. Socio-demographic and health status characteristics were measured using questionnaires. T-tests and a multivariable linear regression analyses were performed.

RESULTS: Patient valuations (mean=0.515; SD=0.240) were higher than population valuations (mean=0.445; SD=0.187; mean difference=0.069; 95%CI:0.063 to 0.076). The magnitude of disagreement between patient and population valuations was found to be associated with various socio-demographic (i.e. age, gender, educational level, social support) and health status characteristics (i.e. daily course of pain complaints, comorbidities, somatization, treatment expectations, functioning).

CONCLUSIONS: In line with previous research, patient valuations were found to be higher than population valuations. The magnitude of disagreement between both valuations differed by various socio-demographic and/or health status characteristics. This indicates that the use of patient valuations in economic evaluations may lead to sociodemographic and/or health status inequalities, providing a further argument for using population valuations.