Estimating utility scores in young children with acute rotavirus gastroenteritis in the UK

Abstract

Objective: To estimate utility scores for different severities of acute rotavirus gastroenteritis in children aged <5 years in the UK.Methods: UK general practitioners (n=25) and paediatricians (n=25) rated four different health state descriptions of acute rotavirus gastroenteritis using the EuroQol (EQ-5D) questionnaire for children aged <18 months and 18 months to 5 years. EQ-5D scores were modified to account for limited self-care and mobility, and converted into utility values using the standard algorithm using UK data.Results: General practitioners rated the mean utility for primary care cases at 0.781 (standard deviation (sd) 0.263) and 0.688 (sd 0.345) for the younger and older age groups, respectively. For hospitalised cases the corresponding scores were 0.425 (sd 0.243) and 0.200 (sd 0.386). Paediatricians rated the mean utility for hospitalised severe cases at 0.595 (sd 0.171) and 0.634 (sd 0.217) in the younger and older groups, respectively, and for hospitalised very severe cases at 0.256 (sd 0.251) and 0.077 (sd 0.340), respectively. In all cases, the utility differences between the health states were statistically significant (p<0.0001).Conclusions: Acute rotavirus gastroenteritis substantially impairs quality of life in children aged <5 years as rated by health professionals. This study provides useful quantitative utility estimates for economic evaluations.