Comparing generic preference-based health-related quality-of-life measures: advancing the research agenda

Interest in generic preference-based health-related quality-of-life measures has grown considerably in recent years. Given the availability of several different measures, there is a question over the extent to which different measures produce different results. To determine the interchangeability between measures, a number of head-to-head comparisons have been undertaken to assess levels of agreement or association. However, the assessment of interchangeability may be addressed using a number of different methods. This paper reviews the methods that have been employed to examine the degree of interchangeability between the Assessment of Quality of Life, EuroQol-5D, Health Utilities Index Mark III, Short-Form-6D, Quality of Wellbeing and 15-dimension measures. It suggests a need to develop alternative econometric strategies and to explore, more fully, economic concepts of validity.