Health-related quality of life in elderly: a review of the EQ-5D use

Abstract

Objective: To systematically identify and review studies that used EQ-5D to assess health-related quality of life (QoL) in elderly. Methods: Relevant literature was searched in MEDLINE and Lilacs databases and the EuroQol Plenary Meetings Proceedings (June/2003 to June/2013). The inclusion criteria were subjects aged 60 years or more and the use of the EQ-5D questionnaire. Two independent reviewers screened title, abstract, full text and performed data extraction. The country where the study had been conducted, demographic characteristics of the population, objectives, common criteria used by the studies to the exclusion of patients/participants and presentation of the data were the variables analyzed. Results: A total of 90 studies were included with 34,449 subjects, the mean age was 75.6 ± 4.3 years. The majority of the studies were from Europe (66.7%). Studies in Africa and South America were not identified. The main diseases investigated were orthopedic (20.0%) and cardiovascular diseases (15.5%). The study’s results were most frequently based on personal interviews (41.1%) involving directly the elderly (92.2%). The most common exclusion criteria were health conditions that could result in bias or confounding on the study protocol (61.1%) and low cognitive level (50.0%). The EQ-5D results were presented in different ways: means (82.2%) or me[1]dians (5.6%) associated with measures of dispersion as standard deviation (61.1%) and confidence interval (22.2%), or according to the answers in the descriptive system (22.2%). Conclusions: The lack of standardization in the exhibition of the results limits a direct comparison among different interventions.