Utility valuation of health states for haemophilia and related complications in Europe and in the United States

Abstract

Introduction: There is currently a paucity of health utility data describing the consequences of haemophilia and related complications.

Aim: To quantify the impact of distinct stages of severity of haemophilia and disease-related complications on health-related quality of life, expressed as health utilities in Europe and the United States.

Methods: Nine health state descriptions were developed based on literature review and interviews with haematologists and haemophilia patients. Three descriptions characterized the impact of mild, moderate and severe haemophilia without inhibitors. Six descriptions characterized disease-related complications added to the moderate haemophilia description (arthroscopic synovectomy, prosthetic joint replacement, chronic pain, spontaneous bleed, traumatic bleed and end-stage joint disease). Time trade-off (TTO) interviews were conducted with 100 adults from the general public in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United States. Mean TTO-derived utility values were expressed on a scale from 0 (death) to 1 (full health).

Results: Utility values obtained for the health states corresponding to mild (0.73-0.86), moderate (0.68-0.76) and severe (0.64-0.71) haemophilia followed the increase in severity. The addition of a complication to the "moderate" state leads to a decrease in the associated utility value. The most severe disutility (0.23-0.36) across all countries was associated with the burden of end-stage joint disease.

Conclusions: This study underlines the value that the French, Italian, German, Swedish, United States and UK populations ascribe to the avoidance of disease progression in haemophilia without inhibitors. Improved treatment options hold a potential for important benefits to haemophilia patients.

Keywords: haemophilia; quality of life; utility; valuation.