Developing the VisQoL Vision-Related Utility Instrument
Author Information
Author(s): Stuart Peacock, RoseAnne Misajon, Angelo Iezzi, Jeff Richardson, Graeme Hawthorne, Jill Keeffe
Primary Institution: Centre for Health Economics in Cancer, British Columbia Cancer Agency
Hypothesis
Utility depends primarily upon the effects of a health condition upon a person’s capacity to achieve a productive and fulfilling life in their social context.
Conclusion
The 6-item VisQoL has excellent psychometric properties and is specifically designed to be sensitive to vision-related quality of life.
Supporting Evidence
- The VisQoL allows utilities to be calculated for a wide range of vision-related conditions.
- Utility instruments quantify the strength of people’s preferences for a health state.
- The VisQoL is the first instrument to permit the rapid estimation of utility values for use in economic evaluations of vision-related programs.
Takeaway
The VisQoL is a tool that helps measure how vision problems affect people's lives, making it easier to evaluate eye care programs.
Methodology
The VisQoL disaggregates vision into six items and uses time trade-off questions to estimate utilities for different health states.
Potential Biases
There is a risk of bias due to the focusing effect, where respondents may concentrate on negative aspects of their health state.
Limitations
The study may be limited by the potential for bias in self-reported health states and the complexity of accurately capturing all aspects of vision-related quality of life.
Participant Demographics
39% of participants had a vision impairment.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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