Challenges in Valuing Temporary Health States for Economic Evaluation: A Review of Empirical Applications of the Chained Time Trade-Off Method

Background

The time trade-off (TTO) technique is commonly used to elicit health state utilities. Nevertheless, when the health states being valued are temporary, the TTO approach may be unsuitable. A variant of TTO— chained TTO—has been suggested to be used when the health states are temporary, but little research has been done on how chained TTO should be conducted.

Objectives

To systematically review the use of chained TTO in valuing temporary health states.

Methods

A systematic literature search was conducted using the following major databases: Ovid MEDLINE(R), Embase, EBM Reviews, and PsycINFO. Abstracts (full articles if necessary) were screened by two independent reviewers, with a third reviewer resolving any disagreements.

Results

The resulting number of articles for review was low (n = 9). All the reviewed studies used face-to-face interviews, most had small sample sizes (<100), and all studies valued a small number of health states (<7), with time horizons typically ranging from 4 weeks to 1 year. All studies discussed methodological issues of using chained TTO, and some compared the results with those generated using other preference elicitation methods.

Conclusions

Chained TTO appears to be feasible, consistent, and responsive and allows the valuation of temporary health states that would improve the efficiency and accuracy of decision making in health and health care. Nevertheless, the evidence is limited due to the low number of relevant studies in the literature. Further research is needed to examine the performance and validity of chained TTO compared with conventional TTO in the valuation of temporary health states.