Between September 10 and 12, 2015, the 32nd EuroQol Plenary Meeting was held in the city of Krakow, Poland. The EuroQol Research Foundation is a non-profit organization, whose objective is to serve the public interest by supporting and carrying out research and developing instruments that improve and value the state of health.

No event foram presented published materials and previous work in andamento. Among the groups present, we highlight:

• Large scale

Studies that validate applicability and interpretation that do not only involve QALYs. It encompasses this aspect of the measures reported to patients - the so-called PROMs - as well as studies on the load of doenças, especially comparing the experiences of different countries.

• Descriptive system

Introduction of variables that are not contemplated in the original instruments, in order to identify possible interferences with the health states and the evaluation of these.

• Digital interface

I employ social media, online inquiries and applications such as tools passed in the application of two instruments and in the assessment of quality of life.

• Education

Research on how to pass information to fine users, events with ISPOR and courses. Demonstrated interest in plans in actions in Latin America in the future.

• Young population

Insertion of quality of life assessments in the pediatric and adolescent population, addressing the EQ-5D-Y. It presents groups interested in research into the impact of palliative care in pediatrics.

• Rating

Extracting values and preferences in the patient group, endorsing the interpretations and applicability of QALY. Studies involving discrete school experiments such as “Best-Worst”.

Nancy Devlin, PhD

The group of researcher Nancy Devlin presents work entitled “A new valuation method: directly eliciting personal utility functions for EQ-5D”, proposing a new valuation method in view of the various limitations reconceived by the already existing proposals; Within these barriers we highlight the processes of “interviewer effect” and “learner effect”, which correspond, respectively, to the interferences resulting from how the interviewer behaves and conducts or studies, and the characteristics of the individuals will progressively acquire better precision. In your answers as we advance our questions making the last series of answers more reliable than the first. Also highlighted is the influence of heuristics on the language process, the presence of inconsistencies with illogical responses and, above all, the inability of two current instruments to evaluate the movement between the different states of health, or age, or weight attributed to patients during A transition between levels in the studied dimensions.

A proposal emerges that is based on the phenomenon of co-deliberation, between interviewer-respondent, called “Personal Utility Function” (PUF). Starting with an exercise of “aquecimento” in which the individual decreves through the EQ-5D and the visual analog scale his current state of health or the worst state of health that he has ever had in his life. Proceed to a two-level ranking activity next to the dimensions. swing weighting using a visual analog scale. In case of any inconsistency between the ranking and the answers given in the evaluation, the interviewee is asked to reflect on his answers before both sections in order to heal the illogical answer.

The aspect addressed by Devlin regarding the impact of the interviewer on the data collection is ratified through the study “The Indonesian EQ-5D-5L Valuation Study: Challenges and Solutions in The Quality of The Data Collection”, demonstrating that those who follow the protocol and acting in a more sophisticated way results in better quality of responses, presenting less flags and inconsistencies.

Unlike the EQ-5D-3L, or the EQ-5D-5L instrument, despite different models, it is not possible to evaluate all health states established by this instrument. In this scenario, a study by a Chinese group was presented with a proposal for a model employing an estimate by interval regression. The work was found under the title “Modeling Chinese Utility Values for EQ-5D-5L Health States: An Interval Regression Approach”.

The published study “A checklist for reporting valuation studies of multi-attribute utility-based instruments (CREATE)” It was presented and discussed during the meeting, with the definition of the final form of the checklist that aims to guide and establish basic parameters for the report for publication of valuation studies, assisting in this form in the elaboration of quality material and minimizing inconsistencies and errors. Access to the entire material is available in the link above.

Recent study of the Dutch group of Dr. Bonsel aboard the questão do Improvised states, which we have been discussing for a long time about the inconsistency of some health states in the real world. However, second data from “Unlikely Health States: Evidence from Healthy and Diseased Populations”, it was identified that only a few health states existed, as they were also much more common than expected.

An innovative aspect discussed in this edition was the reconfirmation and initiation of validation of the denominations Health Related Avaliações e Motivações (HRAM) which is directly related to the quality of life process, through interactions between the characteristics of the individual and the environment, encompassing characteristics such as biological and physiological variations, functional status and health perception.

A new look at how the valuation is conducted was also highlighted in the allegory of the thermos “cloudiness and attributes”, referring to the fact that the attribution of preferences may be a process that depends on the reference of the individual, in this way, it is known that a person in front of a relevant depression table can influence the determination of the other dimensions, “in the same way that “A cloudy day may interfere with our schools.”