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We read with interest the recent article by Schraget al,1 in which the authors showed that the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D) is a valid measure of quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease. However, the authors neglected to mention two important aspects of the EQ-5D that differentiate it from typical quality of life instruments.
Firstly, the EQ-5D is a preference based measure. The summary score of the EQ-5D captures the strength of a person's preference for a given health outcome relative to other possible outcomes. These preferences (also called utilities) are measured on a scale from 0 to 1 where 0 represents death and 1 represents perfect health. The values derived from the EQ-5D can be used to compare health states in a quantitative way. For example, a health state with a value of 0.5 is half as desirable as perfect health. The …
Dr A Schrag
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↵* Member of the EuroQol group