Abstract
Background: In cost-effectiveness analyses, Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALY) remains one of the most widely used health effect measure. Among the various methods of estimating utility values, time trade-off (TTO) has traditionally been one of the dominant methods for eliciting utilities, however it has been presenting several practical impediments to provide a high and fast collecting process.Objective: To test a method of collecting TTO-derived utilities using a platform called Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) that provides reliable, fast and inexpensive data.Methods: A pre-programmed interactive questionnaire was design to simulate a live TTO interview using Qualtrics. To validate the results members of the Research on Research (RoR) Group not aware of the research agreed to answer the same questions on a videoconference live interview. We determined feasibility through assessment quality and cost/benefit relation indicators. In addition, this paper followed the framework for reproducible research reports proposed by our group.Results: Results: Our results showed that the MTurk population is representative of the US population (based on 2012 census) and there were no differences on the willingness to live when comparing the MTurk sample and the live interview sample, and also no differences of the WTL when comparing the different questionnaire designs developed. Preference results showed differences only for race (between others and African-Americans, and other and white), and overall median values of 0.83 (Q1=0.83;Q3=0.90).Conclusions: MTurk is a reliable web place to collect large sample using the TTO method, and should be used to collect utility data for CEA.
Highlights
Because the effect of medical interventions may be difficult to measure and compare, it is unsurprising that there has been considerable interest and research into developing methods to quantitatively measure the health status of individuals and population1
Results: Our results showed that the Mechanical Turk (MTurk) population is representative of the US population and there were no differences on the willingness to live when comparing the MTurk sample and the live interview sample, and no differences of the WTL when comparing the different questionnaire designs developed
Because the health state description has been noted as a source of bias in previous time trade-off (TTO) studies15, we presented respondents with a testimonial video of an actual patient suffering OA followed by a written description: “Imagine you're 50 years old, and you have knee osteoarthritis, you have daily pain, difficulty climbing stairs, lifting heavy weights, walking long distances, you can't do heavy domestic duties, you experience morning stiffness, you take daily pain killers and you need a cane or a walker to attend social activities.”
Summary
Because the effect of medical interventions may be difficult to measure and compare, it is unsurprising that there has been considerable interest and research into developing methods to quantitatively measure the health status of individuals and population. The Panel recommended that researchers incorporate quality-of-life into the denominator of the cost/effectiveness ratio. The most commonly used method of quantitatively comparing these interventions is cost-utility analysis, which measures the benefits of competing health care interventions using quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). The QALY is based on a utility value, which assigns a weight between 0 (for death) and 1 (for full health). The QALY is based on a utility value, which assigns a weight between 0 (for death) and 1 (for full health)5 This weight is the relative value of time spent in different health states. In cost-effectiveness analyses, Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALY) remains one of the most widely used health effect measure. Objective: To test a method of collecting TTO-derived utilities using a platform called Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) that provides reliable, fast and inexpensive data. Conclusions: MTurk is a reliable web place to collect large sample using the TTO method, and should be used to collect utility data for CEA
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