Objective
To develop emerging good practice recommendations for the valuation of health related quality of life (HRQoL) in children and adolescents for the generation of quality adjusted life years (QALYs) for use in economic models.
Rationale
Existing research in the valuation of HRQoL in children and adolescents is published in disparate articles and journals, with no single source that can be used as a reference point. There is a clear requirement for identifying and disseminating emerging good practice recommendations to: 1) educate and advise researchers and organisations undertaking valuation studies of the HRQoL of children and adolescents and 2) assist reviewers and policy makers in their evaluations of the appropriateness of both valuation methods and child and adolescent HSU evidence used in economic models.
Methods guidelines for economic evaluation by international agencies lack detailed guidelines specific to child HRQoL utilities, or they implicitly assume that what is recommended for adults is also what is most appropriate for children and adolescents. This is an important gap both for the measures of HRQoL that are used and how the measures have been valued. Addressing this gap in guidelines is important to advance health economics outcomes research, to increase accuracy and usage or these preference-based measures for children and adolescents.