Mode of Administration Is Important in US National Estimates of Health-Related Quality of Life
- 1 December 2007
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Medical Care
- Vol. 45 (12), 1171-1179
- https://doi.org/10.1097/mlr.0b013e3181354828
Abstract
Background: It is unknown if different national surveys that vary in mode of administration yield similar national averages for health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Purpose: Examine HRQoL scores from 4 surveys representative of the noninstitutionalized US adult population for patterns related to age, gender, and mode of administration. Methods: We use data from the Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health (JCUSH; telephone survey), 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS; mail survey), National Health Measurement Study (NHMS; telephone survey), and US Valuation of the EuroQol EQ-5D Health States Survey (USVEQ; self-administered with interviewer present). We compare estimates from the EQ-5D, Visual Analog Scale, Health Utilities Index Mark 3, and general self-rated health stratified by age and gender. Scores were also regressed on age and gender within each survey and in a pooled analysis. Results: We used 4939 subjects from JCUSH, 23,006 from MEPS, 3844 from NHMS, and 3878 from USVEQ. The majority of age and gender strata had instrument completion rates above 85%. Age- and gender-stratified estimates of HRQoL scores tended to be consistent when mode of administration (self- or interviewer-administered) was the same. Telephone administration yielded more positive HRQoL estimates than self-administration in older age groups. Older age groups and females reported lower HRQoL than younger age groups and males regardless of mode of administration. Conclusions: When choosing survey-collected HRQoL scores for comparative purposes, analysts need to take mode of administration into account.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- US Norms for Six Generic Health-Related Quality-of-Life Indexes From the National Health Measurement StudyMedical Care, 2007
- Report of Nationally Representative Values for the Noninstitutionalized US Adult Population for 7 Health-Related Quality-of-Life ScoresMedical Decision Making, 2006
- Comparing Health And Health Care Use In Canada And The United StatesHealth Affairs, 2006
- Self-Reported Health Status of the General Adult U.S. Population as Assessed by the EQ-5D and Health Utilities IndexMedical Care, 2005
- Mode of questionnaire administration can have serious effects on data qualityJournal of Public Health, 2005
- US Valuation of the EQ-5D Health StatesMedical Care, 2005
- Short Form 36 (SF-36) Health Survey questionnaire: which normative data should be used? Comparisons between the norms provided by the omnibus survey in Britain, the Health Survey for England and the Oxford Healthy Life SurveyJournal of Public Health, 1999
- Modeling Valuations for EuroQol Health StatesMedical Care, 1997
- Does it matter whom and how you ask? Inter- and intra-rater agreement in the Ontario Health SurveyJournal of Clinical Epidemiology, 1997
- Comparisons of the Costs and Quality of Norms for the SF-36 Health Survey Collected by Mail Versus Telephone Interview: Results From a National SurveyMedical Care, 1994