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Responsiveness of the EQ‐5D to HADS‐identified anxiety and depression
Author(s) -
Whynes David K.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2753.2008.01102.x
Subject(s) - hospital anxiety and depression scale , anxiety , depression (economics) , context (archaeology) , distress , medicine , psychological intervention , clinical psychology , psychological distress , quality of life (healthcare) , visual analogue scale , generalization , psychiatry , psychology , physical therapy , paleontology , mathematical analysis , nursing , mathematics , biology , economics , macroeconomics
Rationale The use of generic measures of health‐related quality of life enables cost effectiveness comparisons of different health care interventions to be made. Nevertheless, there exists a concern that generic instruments may be insufficiently sensitive to detect the differences or changes in outcome identified by condition‐specific instruments. This paper compares the psychometric properties of the EQ‐5D generic instrument with a widely used specific measure of distress, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Method The analysis was based on data obtained from a large sample of women ( n = 3119) with low‐grade cervical cytological abnormalities detected at routine screening. These women completed EQ‐5D and HADS questionnaires at recruitment and at 12 months thereafter. We examined the strength of association between HADS‐determined severity of distress and EQ‐5D scores at recruitment and between changes in severity and in scores over time. Results A higher likelihood of HADS‐identified anxiety and/or depression was associated with significantly lower EQ‐5D index and visual analogue scores. Over time, the EQ‐5D score rose significantly when the likelihood of an individual representing a HADS‐defined anxiety and/or depression case decreased. Conclusion We conclude that the EQ‐5D has shown itself to be responsive to differing degrees of HADS‐assessed distress, although generalization beyond the UK context requires further investigation.