Article Text
Abstract
Objective: To analyse the psychometric properties of the EuroQol questionnaire (EQ-5D) applied to patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS).
Setting: Rehabilitation hospital.
Patients and design: 106 consecutive patients with ACS (51% myocardial infarction, 42% coronary artery bypass grafting, 7% angina) completed the EQ-5D, the 36 item short form health survey (SF-36), and the MacNew questionnaire at admission, at discharge, and three months after inpatient cardiac rehabilitation. Acceptance, validity, reliability, and responsiveness of the EQ-5D were tested.
Results: The EQ-5D was highly accepted. The EQ-5D index showed substantial ceiling effects after rehabilitation. As expected the EQ-5D visual analogue scale (VAS) score (70.3 v 57.1) and EQ-5D index (77.8 v 64.5) were significantly better for patients with myocardial infarction than for patients who underwent surgery (both p ⩽ 0.001). Significant correlations were found between the EQ-5D VAS score, EQ-5D index, and domains of the SF-36 (r = 0.21 to r = 0.74). The correlation with the MacNew subscores and with the global score ranged between 0.55 and 0.78. With repeated measurement the EQ-5D showed reasonable reliability in stable patients with intraclass correlation ranging between 0.91 and 0.54. EQ-5D was responsive in patients who indicated improvement in health states between admission and discharge (effect size 0.74–0.82).
Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the EQ-5D were satisfying. It is a reasonably valid, reliable, and responsive instrument for patients with ACS. It may be useful in clinical research and epidemiological studies to generate preference based valuations of health related quality life.
- ACS, acute coronary syndromes
- EQ-5D, EuroQol questionnaire
- HRQoL, health related quality of life
- MI, myocardial infarction
- NYHA, New York Heart Association
- SF-36, 36 item short form health survey
- VAS, visual analogue scale
- cardiac rehabilitation
- quality of life
- EuroQol questionnaire
- EQ-5D
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Footnotes
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↵* Also the GSF National Research Centre for Environment and Health, Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management, Neuherberg, Germany
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Published Online First 29 March 2005
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Conflicting interest statement: We hereby declare that there are no conflicting interests for any of the authors of this manuscript.