Abstract
Objectives To elicit utility of various functional outcomes after stroke for application in cost-utility analysis for stroke rehabilitation and to analyze the effects of demographic characteristics such as age, sex, professional status, marital status, or health status and the relationship between rating scale and time trade-off methods.
Methods The respondents were 460 healthy people, students (n=169), rehabilitation staff (n=134), family caregivers (n=52) and office workers (n=105). We assessed utility for 5 functinal outcomes after stroke according to the Rankin scale, employing rating scale and time trade-off methods.
Results The mean utilities for Rankin I-V were 0.89-0.18 using rating scale, and 0.83-0.09 using time trade-off. Correlations between the two were only 0.176-0.412. The effect of professional status was clear, with rehabilitation staffs and caregivers giving higher utilities than students and office workers using time trade-off. However, effects of other characteristics were not apparent.
Conclusions People's preferences for stroke outcomes differ with disability level, and correlation between rating scale and time trade-off utility is weak. We found that few demographic characteristics had significant influence.
