Health-related quality of life and utilities in gastric premalignant conditions and malignant lesions: A multicentre study in a high prevalence country

Abstract

Conclusion: The health-related QoL utilities of patients with premalignant conditions are similar to those without gastric diseases whereas patients with present cancer show decreased utilities. Moreover, women had consistently lower utilities than men. Tese results confrm that the use of a single standardized instrument such as the EQ-5D-5L for all stages of the gastric carcinogenesis cascade is feasible and that it captures diferences between conditions and gender dissimilarities, being relevant information for authors pretending to conduct further cost-utility analysis. Background & Aims: A recent review of economic studies relating to gastric cancer revealed that authors use diferent tests to estimate utilities in patients with and without gastric cancer. Our aim was to determine the utilities of gastric premalignant conditions and adenocarcinoma with a single standardized health measure instrument. Methods: Cross-sectional nationwide study of patients undergoing upper endoscopy (n=1,434) using the EQ-5D-5L quality of life (QoL) questionnaire. Results: According to EQ-5D-5L, utilities in individuals without gastric lesions were 0.78 (95% confidence interval: 0.76-0.80), with gastric premalignant conditions 0.79 (0.77-0.81), previously treated for gastric cancer 0.77 (0.73-0.81) and with present cancer 0.68 (0.55-0.81). Self-reported QoL according to the visual analogue scale (VAS) for the same groups were 0.67 (0.66-0.69), 0.67 (0.66-0.69), 0.62 (0.59-0.65) and 0.62 (0.54-0.70) respectively. Utilities were consistently lower in women versus men (no lesions 0.71 vs. 0.78; premalignant conditions 0.70 vs. 0.82; treated for cancer 0.72 vs. 0.78 and present cancer 0.66 vs. 0.70).