Measuring Utility for Menopausal Symptoms Based on Time Trade-Off and Visual Analogue Scale Methods

The present study was conducted to measure health-related utility for post-menopausal symptoms among Korean woman. A survey questionnaire was developed to measure utility based on visual analogue scale(VAS) and time trade-off method (TTO). From January 29 to February 3, 2007, a face-to-face interview was conducted with 274 women aged 45 to 60 to ask about their subjective utility for hypothetical health status of mild or severe post-menopausal symptoms. Among the participants, 160 were recruited from outpatient departments of 3 hospitals and 114 from 2 sports centers located in Seoul. For mild symptom, the average utility score of the respondents was $0.63{\pm}0.14$ based on VAS and $0.61{\pm}0.26$ based on ITO. For severe symptoms, the average utility was $0.39{\pm}0.16$(VAS) and $0.44{\pm}0.27$ (TTO). For severe symptom, a higher utility score was observed for TTO than for VAS, which is consistent with earlier studies and thus supports the validity of the utility measurement in this study. Overall, the severity of post-menopausal symptoms of the respondents themselves was not significantly associated with the utility score that the respondents answered for hypothetical health status. Multiple regression analysis results showed that the utility score was significantly higher among respondents with older age, higher education, higher family income, and from hospitals. It is expected that the utility score measured in this study will enhance the understanding of the quality of life of women after menopause and will be used to conduct cost-utility analysis of health care interventions to treat post-menopausal symptoms.

시간교환법과 시각화척도 방법을 이용한 폐경 후 에스트로겐 결핍증에 대한 효용 측정