Abstract

Objectives

The EQ Health and Wellbeing (EQ-HWB) is a new, generic instrument of health and wellbeing for patients and caregivers. It includes 2 measures, the EQ-HWB (25 items) and the EQ-HWB-S (9 items). Validating the instrument in a range of caregiver populations is now required. We investigated the validity and reliability of the EQ-HWB measures for caregivers, specifically for known-group differences in caregiver contribution, support, finance, work, and health.

Methods

The sample consisted of parents of children with chronic health conditions. We explored EQ-HWB item response distributions. Convergent validity of the EQ-HWB was assessed against the EQ-5D and CarerQol-7D using Spearman correlations. Known-groups validity analysis was conducted on caregiver outcomes using student’s t tests and one-way analysis of variances for EQ-HWB and EQ-HWB-S sum scores, and EQ-HWB-S, EQ-5D-5L, and CarerQol index scores. Test-retest reliability was conducted over 2 days using intraclass correlation coefficients for totals and Kappa for items.

Results

The physical EQ-HWB items (seeing, hearing, mobility, activities, personal-care, and felt unsafe) were more negatively skewed than other EQ-HWB items. Known-group validity results conformed to a priori hypotheses; effect size comparisons between instruments varied. A priori hypotheses for convergent validity tests were all supported between EQ-HWB and EQ-5D-5L and most were supported between EQ-HWB and CarerQol. intraclass correlation coefficients results were good; Kappa results suggested moderate test-retest agreement, with variation across items.

Conclusions

The EQ-HWB instruments appeared valid and reliable against our criteria, and distinguished between groups for caregiver contribution, support, finance/income, and caregiver health. The EQ-HWB instruments seem suitable for measuring the quality of life of caregivers of children with health conditions.