ArticleHealth and quality of life outcomes2015
Assessing the health of the general population in England: how do the three- and five-level versions of EQ-5D compare?
Article in Health and quality of life outcomes, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Health-Related quality of life and the impact of traditional, complementary and integrative Medicine - an Online - Representative Cross-Sectional survey in Germany.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Psychometric properties of the EQ-5D-5L: a systematic review of the literature.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Studies Comparing the Measurement Properties of the Three-Level and Five-Level Versions of the EQ-5D.PharmacoEconomics · 2018Pooled it
- Assessing measurement properties of EQ-5D-5L and ICECAP-A in patients with chronic depression in England.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2025Trial
- Aphasia-specific or generic outcomes? a comparison of two health-related quality of life instruments for economic evaluations of aphasia treatments.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Trial
- Cost-effectiveness of a structured medication review approach for multimorbid older adults: Within-trial analysis of the OPERAM study.PloS one · 2022Trial
- Psychometric properties comparison between EQ-5D-5L and EQ-5D-3L in the general Thai population.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2020Trial
- EQ-5D-5L is More Responsive than EQ-5D-3L to Treatment Benefit of Cataract Surgery.The patient · 2019Trial
- Convergent validity of the EQ-5D-3L in a randomized-controlled trial of the Housing First model.BMC health services research · 2019Trial
- Utility Values for Health States in Ireland: A Value Set for the EQ-5D-5L.PharmacoEconomics · 2018Trial
- Health-related quality of life effects of enzalutamide in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: an in-depth post hoc analysis of EQ-5D data from the PREVAIL trial.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2017Trial
- Population norms for the EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L in Peninsular Malaysia.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Health-related quality of life in amputees with a microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knee measured by the EQ-5D-5L.Canadian prosthetics & orthotics journal · 2026Article
- Health-Related QoL of Hypertensive Patients in Bulgaria-Population-Based, Regional Pilot Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Observational
- Early Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Intra-articular Delivery of a PBAE-DEX Conjugate for Osteoarthritis in a UK Population.Clinical drug investigation · 2025Article
- Physical activity and weight are important predictors of health related quality of life in adults with congenital heart disease.International journal of cardiology. Congenital heart disease · 2025Article
- Assessment of Quality of Life in Lithuanian Patients with Multimorbidity Using the EQ-5D-5L Questionnaire.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Validity and responsiveness of EQ-5D-Y in children with haematological malignancies and their caregivers.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2024Article
- Health status based on EQ-5D-5L for the cancer patient population in Malaysia.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Australian population norms for health-related quality of life measured using the EQ-5D-5L, and relationships with sociodemographic characteristics.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2024Article
30 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe EQ-5D is a brief, generic measure of health status that can be easily incorporated into population health surveys. There are two versions of the EQ-5D for use in adult populations, one with 3 response levels in each of the instrument's 5 dimensions (EQ-5D-3L) and one with 5 levels in each dimension (EQ-5D-5L). We compared the two versions as measures of self-reported health status in representative samples of the English general population.
methodsEQ-5D-5L data were available from 996 respondents selected at random from residential postcodes who took part in the EQ-5D-5L value set for England study. EQ-5D-3L data were available from 7294 participants included in the 2012 Health Survey for England. Responses on the 3L and 5L versions of EQ-5D were compared by examining score distributions on the two versions, both in terms of the profile (dimensions) and the EQ-VAS. To determine the extent of variations in score according to respondent characteristics, we analysed health status reporting on the descriptive profile, EQ-5D Index, and EQ-VAS of both versions of EQ-5D by age, sex, and educational background. We used X (2) to test for differences between respondent categories when analyzing EQ-5D profile data and the t test when analyzing EQ-5D Index and VAS scores.
resultsThe 5L version of EQ-5D led to a considerably reduced ceiling effect and a larger proportion of respondents reporting severe health problems compared to the 3L. The 5L version also led to the use of a wider spread of health states; just 3 health states on the 3L covered 75 % of the sample, compared to 12 states on the 5L. Both versions showed poorer health status in older respondents, females, and those in a lower educational category and the EQ-5D-5L descriptive system, though not the Index or VAS, discriminated better between age groups than the 3L. There were no appreciable differences between the two versions in their ability to discriminate between groups defined by gender or educational level.
conclusionsThe new, expanded 5L version of EQ-5D may be a more useful instrument for the measurement of health status in population health surveys than the original 3L version.
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