Abstract
BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in pemphigus has been widely investigated; nevertheless, utility values for economic evaluations are still lacking. OBJECTIVES: To estimate health utilities for hypothetical pemphigus vulgaris (PV) and pemphigus foliaceus (PF) health states in a general population sample. METHODS: Three health states (uncontrolled PV, uncontrolled PF and controlled pemphigus) were developed based on a systematic literature review of HRQoL studies in pemphigus. Utilities were obtained from a convenience sample of 108 adults using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and 10-year time trade-off (TTO). Lead-time TTO was applied for health states regarded as worse than dead with a lead time to disease time ratio of 1 : 1. RESULTS: The mean VAS utility scores for PV, PF and controlled pemphigus were 0.25 +/- 0.15, 0.37 +/- 0.17 and 0.63 +/- 0.16, respectively. Corresponding TTO utilities were as follows: 0.34 +/- 0.38, 0.51 +/- 0.32 and 0.75 +/- 0.31. Overall, 14% and 6% judged PV and PF as being worse than dead. For both VAS and TTO values, significant differences were observed between all health states (P < 0.001). VAS utilities were rated significantly lower compared with TTO in each health state (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study that reports health utility values for PV and PF. Successful treatment of pemphigus might result in significant utility gain (0.24-0.41). These empirical findings with respect to three health states in pemphigus may serve as anchor points for further utility studies and cost-effectiveness analyses.
