EQ-5D-5L Slovenian population norms

Background

The study aims to present Slovenian EQ-5D-5L population norms for different age and gender subgroups that can be used as reference values in future studies concerning health status. The secondary aim is to compare those norms with population norms from some other countries in Europe and elsewhere.

Methods

The cross-sectional survey was conducted between November 2019 and February 2020 via online panel. 1071 adults aged 18+ were included in the survey. The general population was sampled using quota sampling in terms of age, gender, and NUTS2 region. In the study, the EQ-5D-5L Slovenian online version was used. Descriptive statistics was used to present health status by age groups and genders for the EQ-5D-5L descriptive system, EQ VAS and the EQ-5D-5L index score. The latter was derived from Slovenian EQ-3D-3L tariff, transformed to five levels using the crosswalk methodology.

Results

The mean EQ VAS score in the Slovenian population was 79.9, mean utility index was 0.808. 28.2% of the population did not have problems on any dimension and 3.9% of the population had problems on all dimensions. Persons residing in Western Slovenia had, on average, 0.016 higher utility score, compared to Eastern Slovenia. Effect of gender was not significant. Age was negatively associated with both utility index and EQ VAS score. Education was positively correlated to health status. Problems on dimensions were generally increasing with age, except for anxiety/depression dimension, where youngest group (ages 18–29) reported more anxiety/depression compared to older counterparts. Self-reported anxiety/depression was more pronounced in women.

Conclusions

Similarly to other countries, the health generally deteriorates with age, except for the anxiety/depression dimension where the share of respondents reporting no problems was lowest in the youngest age group. The open question for the future remains, whether population norms from this online sample differ significantly from the actual EQ-5D-5L health status data of the Slovenian general population.