Elicitation of health state utilities associated with varying severities of flares in XXXX .

@entity1 @entity149 @entity1252 @entity283
BACKGROUND: @entity1252 ( @entity1252 ) is characterised by fluctuating periods of minimal disease activity and 'flare'. Flare is an important outcome variable impacting the disease burden associated with @entity1252 . The objective of this study was to obtain population-based utility values for varying severities of flare to measure the impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Spain and the UK. METHODS: Six @entity283 ( @entity283 ) for varying severities of flare were developed based on literature, @entity1 blogs, and interviews with @entity1 (n   =   12), rheumatologists (n   =   7) and nurses (n   =   2). @entity283 were validated by independent clinical experts (n   =   6) and pilot interviews (n   =   10, UK). @entity283 were evaluated using the time-trade-off (TTO) method during face-to-face interviews with a minimum representative sample (n   =   100) of the general population, per-country. Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores were obtained to validate TTO scores. TTO scores were converted into utility values. RESULTS: The highest mean TTO utility scores were observed for the anchor @entity283 (minimal disease activity) across all countries; means ranged from 0.66 in Japan to 0.82 in UK. All flare @entity283 were associated with a disutility compared with the anchor @entity283 (p   <   0.001), means ranged across countries: mild flare @entity283 : 0.55-0.71, moderate flare @entity283 : 0.38-0.53, severe renal flare @entity283 : 0.33-0.45, severe @entity149 ( @entity149 ) flare @entity283 : 0.30-0.45 and severe generalised flare @entity283 : 0.19-0.33. Mean VAS scores followed the same trend. CONCLUSIONS: These results show increasing severity of flare has a detrimental impact on HRQoL. The severe generalised flare @entity283 received the lowest mean utility score suggesting that the perceived day-to-day impact of a severe generalised flare was greater than a severe @entity149 or severe renal flare. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first utility study to assess varying severities of flare in @entity1252 across six different countries.
