Seminar - Dr Sabina Sanghera - Measuring and valuing QALYs when health fluctuates

More details to be confirmed.

Abstract

Many conditions are associated with recurrent fluctuations in health. These can occur due to long-term conditions with episodic symptoms (such as multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, asthma) or through side effects of cycles of treatment (such as chemotherapy). Due to their fluctuating nature, it is challenging to obtain reliable quality of life estimates and standard measurement and analytic approaches may not be suitable.

In this talk, Sabina will outline how the adequacy of the quality of life estimates will be impacted by: (1) the recall period of measures, (2) the timepoints for assessing quality of life, and (3) the assumptions used to interpolate between measurement time points and calculate QALYs. She will present findings from a think-aloud study, which aimed to understand how patients with a fluctuating condition complete questionnaires with standard recall periods (‘health today’, ‘past week’ and ‘past 4 weeks’), highlight the key implications of methods used from a review of economic evaluations of a fluctuating condition and outline her research plans to determine how best to measure QALYs when health fluctuates and explore the extent to which the valuation methods that underpin recommended measures are appropriate when health fluctuates.

 

Bio

Sabina is a Lecturer in Health Economics in the Health Economics Bristol (HEB) group at the University of Bristol. She was awarded a 3-year NIHR postdoctoral fellowship to explore how best to account for the impact of fluctuating health states on quality of life measures included in economic evaluation.

Previously, she worked as a health economist at the Health Economics Research Group (HERG) at Brunel University London in the ‘Economics of Public Health’ and at the Health Economics Unit (HEU) at the University of Birmingham, where she also completed her PhD ‘comparing welfarist and extra-welfarist approaches to valuing outcomes in a fluctuating condition’.