| To Register SMDM Homepage | |
|
|
|
||||
Purpose: The goal of our study was to evaluate whether melanoma (MM) patients could predict the quality of life impact of a different melanoma stage from their own.
Methods: Utility scores were elicited with a computer-based time trade-off technique. We established 6 different melanoma health states based on stage (I, II, and III) and time from diagnosis, new (< one year ago) or old (³ one year ago). The patients’ utility scores for their own melanoma health state and an alternate hypothetical melanoma state were elicited after they were shown a brief presentation of each state’s prognosis, treatment, and reactions of other patients with the same health state. One-way ANOVA and post hoc comparisons were used to analyze mean utilities.
Results: A total of 101 patients (mean age 49.8 years, 54.5% female, and 100% Caucasian), recruited from our melanoma clinics and database, participated in the study. The following table shows mean utilities for actual melanoma health states, as well as mean utilities for hypothetical melanoma health states:
| New Stage | Actual MM Health State Mean Utility (SD) | Hypothetical MM Health State Mean Utility (SD) | Current Patient State | N |
| I | 0.93 (0.099) |
|
| 14 |
|
|
| 1.0 (0) | New Stage II | 3 |
|
|
| 0.95 (0.074) | Old Stage II | 8 |
|
|
| 0.90 (0.088) | New Stage III | 7 |
|
|
| 0.95 (0.088) | Old Stage III | 8 |
|
|
| 0.94 (0.080) | Combined stages | 26 |
| II | 0.97 (0.058) |
|
| 3 |
|
|
| 0.97 (0.060) | New Stage I | 3 |
|
|
| 0.71 (0.24) | Old Stage I | 30 |
|
|
| 0.73 (0.24) | Combined stages | 33 |
| III | 0.52 (0.31) |
|
| 7 |
|
|
| 0.54 (0.31) | New Stage I | 10 |
|
|
| 0.49 (0.30) | Old Stage I | 32 |
|
|
| 0.50 (0.30) | Combined stages | 42 |
No statistically significant differences were found between real and hypothetical utilities for patients in each individual melanoma health state. When we combined all the patients in different melanoma health states predicting the same state together, the projected utility was not significantly different from those patients who actually had the health state.
Conclusions: Although the number in this preliminary study is small, these results suggest that melanoma patients may be able to realistically imagine alternate melanoma stages.
See more of Poster Session - CEA: Methods and Applications; Health Services Research
See more of The 26th Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making (October 17-20, 2004)