Application of a new paediatric preference based health related quality of life measure; the Child Health Utility 9D
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Health and Related Research
Abstract
The Department of Health has recently highlighted the importance of promoting health and well being. Making decisions amongst competing healthcare needs is important in the UK National Health Service (NHS). In order to make more informed decisions, information is needed on the costs and benefits of the alternatives. In addition to increasing length of life, many interventions also have an impact on quality of life. In an economic evaluation, this is combined into a single measure called the quality adjusted life year (QALY). Interventions can then be compared in terms of their cost per QALY gained. Measures that quantify health related quality of life have been developed for adults and each has a set of preference weights associated with them which have been derived from interviews with the general public. These give a higher weight to more desirable health states. Measures that do this for children were lacking. Over the last 3 years I have developed a new measure to do this for children to address this gap. I now need to apply the measure in practice, for example in clinical trials and other studies, which should lead to better and more informed decision making in healthcare for children.
Technical Summary
During my doctoral work I developed a new paediatric generic preference based measure of health related quality of life for use in economic evaluation, the Child Health Utility 9D (CHU9D). I am now at the stage of my career where I need to consolidate and disseminate this work in order to achieve several aims:
To promote the use of the measure (CHU9D) in paediatric health care research.
To undertake further testing of the performance of the measure (CHU9D).
To establish my research reputation in the area of paediatric outcome measurement and valuation.
To develop collaborations and research proposals for future work in the area.
To achieve my career aim of becoming a researcher leader in this area.
A post doctoral Fellowship would allow me the time and resources to undertake a programme of post doctoral research activity in order to achieve these aims. The programme will consist of several elements. The first element is developing 2 areas of further research interest; applying the measure in clinical trials and other paediatric research studies, and developing and piloting methods to obtain children‘s valuations of the health states defined by the descriptive system of the CHU9D. The second element is to disseminate work from the thesis by producing at least 5 high quality publications over the duration of the Fellowship. Thirdly, I will continue to develop collaborations, both in the UK and internationally and also attend conferences to aid with dissemination and to increase networking opportunities. Fourthly I will continue to undertake some teaching and supervision of post graduate students in order to maintain my skills and develop further in this important area of my career, mainly in areas of my research interests. Finally, I will undertake further training in 2 areas; specific training on the application of discrete choice experiments in economic evaluation in order to be applied in future valuation work and general research leadership skills, by enrolling on the research leaders programme here at The University of Sheffield.
To promote the use of the measure (CHU9D) in paediatric health care research.
To undertake further testing of the performance of the measure (CHU9D).
To establish my research reputation in the area of paediatric outcome measurement and valuation.
To develop collaborations and research proposals for future work in the area.
To achieve my career aim of becoming a researcher leader in this area.
A post doctoral Fellowship would allow me the time and resources to undertake a programme of post doctoral research activity in order to achieve these aims. The programme will consist of several elements. The first element is developing 2 areas of further research interest; applying the measure in clinical trials and other paediatric research studies, and developing and piloting methods to obtain children‘s valuations of the health states defined by the descriptive system of the CHU9D. The second element is to disseminate work from the thesis by producing at least 5 high quality publications over the duration of the Fellowship. Thirdly, I will continue to develop collaborations, both in the UK and internationally and also attend conferences to aid with dissemination and to increase networking opportunities. Fourthly I will continue to undertake some teaching and supervision of post graduate students in order to maintain my skills and develop further in this important area of my career, mainly in areas of my research interests. Finally, I will undertake further training in 2 areas; specific training on the application of discrete choice experiments in economic evaluation in order to be applied in future valuation work and general research leadership skills, by enrolling on the research leaders programme here at The University of Sheffield.