Estimating quality weights for EQ-5D health states with the time trade-off method in South Korea.

OBJECTIVE To estimate quality weights of EQ-5D health states with the time trade-off (TTO) method in the general population of South Korea. METHODS A total of 500 respondents valued 42 hypothetical EQ-5D health states using the TTO and visual analog scale. The quality weights for all EQ-5D health states were estimated by a random effects model and compared with those from studies in other countries. RESULTS Overall estimated quality weights for all EQ-5D health states from this study were highly correlated with those from previous studies, but quality weights of individual states were substantially different from those of their corresponding states in other studies. CONCLUSIONS The Korean value set differed from value sets from other countries. Special caution is needed when a value set from one country is applied to another with a different culture.