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Measuring Health Preferences for Health Utilities Index Mark 3 Health States: A Study of Feasibility and Preference Differences among Ethnic Groups in Singapore

Centre for Health Services Research, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Qinan Wang, PhD

Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, aqnwang{at}ntu.edu.sg

David Feeny, PhD

Institute of Health Economics & University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, Kaiser Permanente Northwest Center for Health Research, Portland, OR, Health Utilities Incorporated, Dundas, ON, Canada

Geraldine Chen, PhD

Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Shu-Chuen Li, PhD

Department of Pharmacy and Experimental Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia

Julian Thumboo, FRCP (Edin)

Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital, Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Background. Little is known about the health preferences of Southeast Asians. The authors therefore investigated the feasibility of measuring health preferences of Chinese, Malays, and Indians in Singapore and compared their preference scores.

Methods. A stratified random sample of the Singaporean general population was interviewed to measure preferences for a set of health states defined by the Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) using both the rating scale (RS) and the standard gamble (SG) methods. Feasibility of preference measurement was assessed using ratings of measurement tasks, task completion rates, and ranking of preference scores. Differences in preference scores across Chinese, Malays, and Indians were examined using analysis of variance models.

Results. Among 245 interviewed respondents (Chinese: 110, Malays: 73, Indians: 62), 97.1% and 95.1% successfully completed all the RS and SG measurement tasks, respectively; 70.1% and 75.3% judged the RS and SG tasks as "easy" or "very easy," respectively. Interviewers rated 69.4% and 75.0% of these respondents as having "full comprehension" for the RS and SG tasks, respectively; "full concentration" was observed in 84.1% and 84.0% of these respondents for the RS and SG tasks, respectively. There were no significant differences in mean preference scores across Chinese, Malays, and Indians, with and without adjustment for effects of confounding variables.

Conclusions. RS and SG are feasible methods for measuring health preferences for Asians in Singapore; it appears that Chinese, Malays, and Indians in Singapore have similar preferences for HUI3 health states.

Key Words: health preference measurement • HUI3 • ethnicity • Singapore • utility

Medical Decision Making, Vol. 27, No. 1, 61-70 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0272989X06297103


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