School of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Universitaetsstrasse 25, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany.
Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2021 Mar 6;19(1):76. doi: 10.1186/s12955-021-01719-7.
Reference values are a helpful tool to facilitate comparisons of sampled values against a specified reference population. The aim is to describe the health profile and to provide visual analogue scale (EQ VAS) and utility reference values for the EQ-5D-5L from a normative sample of the general elderly population (65+) in Germany.
We analysed a sub-set of data from the German EQ-5D-5L valuation study using self-reported information based on EQ-5D-5L. We examined the share of respondents in each severity level per dimension as well as means, standard deviations (SD) and 95% confidence intervals for the index and EQ VAS values stratified by age groups and gender. Age was categorised in four groups (65-69, 70-74, 75-79 and > 79 years) to facilitate a more detailed examination of age-related health-related quality of life (HRQoL).
The average index and EQ VAS scores were 0.84 (SD 0.22) and 73.2 (SD 18.5), respectively. In total, 21.4% reported no problems in all dimensions. With higher age, health problems were reported more frequently, which, in turn, lead to monotonically decreasing index and EQ VAS values. Overall, men reported fewer problems than women and this difference was largest beyond the age of 80.
HRQoL in the oldest old appears to be less stable and differs from the young elderly. However, the conventional age categorisation of earlier population norms studies seems to mask these differences. Hence, the more detailed provision of EQ-5D-5L reference values for the elderly population seems helpful for future German studies.
参考值是一种有用的工具，可以方便地将采样值与指定的参考人群进行比较。其目的是描述健康状况，并为德国一般老年人群（65 岁以上）的规范样本提供 EQ-5D-5L 的视觉模拟量表（EQ VAS）和效用参考值。
我们使用基于 EQ-5D-5L 的自我报告信息，分析了德国 EQ-5D-5L 估值研究的一个子数据集。我们检查了每个维度每个严重程度级别的受访者比例，以及按年龄组和性别分层的指数和 EQ VAS 值的平均值、标准差（SD）和 95%置信区间。年龄分为四组（65-69 岁、70-74 岁、75-79 岁和>79 岁），以更详细地检查与年龄相关的健康相关生活质量（HRQoL）。
平均指数和 EQ VAS 评分为 0.84（SD 0.22）和 73.2（SD 18.5）。共有 21.4%的人在所有维度上均无问题。随着年龄的增长，健康问题的报告更为频繁，这反过来又导致指数和 EQ VAS 值呈单调下降。总体而言，男性报告的问题比女性少，而且这种差异在 80 岁以上的人群中最大。
在最年长的老年人中，HRQoL 似乎不太稳定，与年轻的老年人不同。然而，早期人群规范研究的常规年龄分类似乎掩盖了这些差异。因此，为老年人群提供更详细的 EQ-5D-5L 参考值对未来的德国研究似乎很有帮助。
