Assessing the Health-Related Quality of Life of Australian Adolescents: An Empirical Comparison of the Child Health Utility 9D and EQ-5D-Y Instruments

Abstract Objectives To examine the performance of two recently developed preference-based instruments - the Child Health Utility 9D (CHU9D) and the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire Youth version (EQ-5D-Y) - in assessing the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Australian adolescents. Methods An online survey including the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y, self-reported health status, and a series of sociodemographic questions was developed for administration to a community-based sample of adolescents (aged 11-17 years). Individual responses to both instruments were translated into utilities using scoring algorithms derived from the Australian adult general population. Results A total of 2020 adolescents completed the online survey. The mean ± SD utilities of the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y were very similar (0.82 ± 0.13 and 0.83 ± 0.19, respectively), and the intraclass correlation coefficient (0.80) suggested good levels of agreement. Both instruments were able to discriminate according to varying levels of self-reported health status (P < 0.001). Although exhibiting good levels of agreement overall, some wide divergences were apparent at an individual level. Conclusions The study results are encouraging and illustrate the potential for both the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y to be more widely used for measuring and valuing the HRQOL of adolescent populations in Australia and internationally. Generating adolescent-specific scoring algorithms pertaining to each instrument and an empirical comparison of the resulting utilities is a natural next step. More evidence is required from the application of the CHU9D and the EQ-5D-Y in specific patient groups in adolescent health settings to inform the choice of instrument for measuring and valuing the HRQOL for the economic evaluation of adolescent health care treatments and services.