To produce an overall QOL score we need a way to combine responses to the ASCOT questions together for each person. For this purpose we will use ‘utility weights’, which reflect the value or preference people have for different dimensions of quality of life (or ASCOT–QOL states). These weights will be estimated through a preference study with a representative sample of the general population in each country.
In this work stream we will: i) generate country-specific ASCOT utility weights for the service user measure and carer measure; ii) compare differences in preferences for ASCOT quality of life states across countries; iii) examine stability of preferences for the English ASCOT service user measure; and iv) explore whether preferences to the English ASCOT service user measure differ according to whether they are collected by a self-completion web-based survey or face-to-face interview survey.
We have now completed the fieldwork associated with this workpackage. We are currently beginning to analyse the data to generate country-specific ASCOT preference weights. We expect to have basic preference weights for all of the measures available by June 2017.
