Valuing the Quality-of-Life Aged Care Consumers (QOL-ACC) Instrument for Quality Assessment and Economic Evaluation.

Abstract

ObjectiveThis paper reports on the valuation of the classification system for the Quality-of-Life Aged Care Consumers (QOL-ACC) instrument using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with duration with a large sample of older people receiving aged care services.MethodsA DCE with 160 choice sets of two quality-of-life state–survival duration combinations blocked into 20 survey versions, with eight choice sets in each version, was designed and administered through an on-line survey to older Australians receiving aged care services in home and via interviewer facilitation with older people in residential aged care settings. Model specifications investigating preferences with respect to survival duration and interactions between QOL-ACC dimension levels were estimated. Utility weights were developed, with estimated coefficients transformed to the 0 (being dead) to 1 (full health) scale to generate a value set suitable for application in quality assessment and for the calculation of quality-adjusted life-years for use in economic evaluation.ResultsIn total, 953 older people completed the choice experiment with valid responses. The estimation results from econometric model specifications indicated that utility increased with survival duration and decreased according to quality-of-life impairment levels. An Australian value set (range − 0.56 to 1.00) was generated for the calculation of utilities for all QOL-ACC states.ConclusionThe QOL-ACC is unique in its focus on measuring and valuing quality of life from the perspective of older people themselves, thereby ensuring that the preferences of aged care service users are the primary focus for quality assessment and economic evaluation.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40273-022-01158-2.