Valuing Health-Related Quality of Life in Type 2 Diabetes Patients in China

Objective. To determine health-state utility (HSU) values for type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with various clinical conditions in China, and to examine how these conditions are correlated with HSU values. Methods. A consecutive sample of T2D patients was recruited from a tertiary hospital in Suzhou, China. HSU values of T2D patients were measured using the EQ-5D-5L, a new version of the EQ-5D. T2D patients’ clinical data were collected from the survey and the clinical examination; sociodemographic data were obtained from the survey. Ordinary least square (OLS) models were employed to estimate the impact of clinical conditions on HSU values controlling for sociodemographic conditions. Nonparametric biased-corrected and accelerated (BCA) bootstrap was used to calculate the 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results. A total of 289 T2D patients provided data. The mean HSU value of the sample was 0.876 (standard deviation: 0.14), with a median of 0.895 (range: −0.063 to 1). Using the OLS model and BCA bootstrap, the impact of significant conditions on HSU values and 95% CIs are as follows: neuropathy (−0.057, [−0.093, −0.017]), heart disease (−0.074, [−0.122, −0.018]), cerebrovascular disease (−0.160, [−0.287, −0.030]), and increasing diabetes duration (−0.004, [−0.007, −0.001]). Conclusion. The HSU values estimated can be used to assess the cost-effectiveness of health care interventions for T2D patients in China.