Oortwijn W, Andrich R, Van Beekum T, Brodin H, Ferrario M, Lorentsen O, Persson J, Wessels R, De Witte L; International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care. Meeting.
Annu Meet Int Soc Technol Assess Health Care Int Soc Technol Assess Health Care Meet. 2000; 16: 031.
Leiden, TNO, Netherlands
Introduction: Assistive technologies and services (AT&S) are provided to disabled and elderly people to improve their functioning in everyday activities and consequently their quality of life. From previous studies it appeared that existing health status profiles and utility instruments inadequately measure the quality of life of disabled people because they focus on health (impairment) rather than on disability and handicap. We therefore further examined the appropriateness of utility instruments, focusing on the EuroQol, as a measure of effectiveness of AT&S as part of the EU-financed "Efficiency of Assistive Technology and Services" (EATS) project. Methods: A new instrument, EATS 2D, was developed, to complement the EuroQol. EATS-2D describes changes in disability in daily life, resulting from the adoption of AT&S. EATS 2D addresses a different perspective of quality of life compared to the EuroQol, and aims to be responsive to AT&S. For example, items are expressed in terms of 'performance' instead of 'capacity'. The instrument focuses on the degree of autonomy experienced by users of AT&S in the context of their daily life environments. The validity, feasibility and reliability of EATS-2D were tested in four EU countries (Sweden, Norway, Italy and the Netherlands). The Sickness Impact Profile (SIP-68) and the EuroQol were used for validation purposes. Results: Service delivery clients (n=250), who applied for an assistive device to help with a problem in the field of mobility, hearing, speech related communication or self-care related to use of the bathroom, were interviewed twice by an independent interviewer. Users were initially interviewed early in the service delivery process and again after they had used the device for three months. Test-retest reliability and inter-assessor reliability (Spearman's Rho) were examined in a further sample of 100 users, who had used a mobility aid for at least 1 year and who were in a stable condition. The results show that the feasibility of EATS 2D is satisfactory: the questions fit well into the service delivery procedures in each country and can be easily administered. Positive correlations were found between changes in EATS- 2D and SIP68 and EuroQol, supporting construct validity. The test-retest and inter-assessor reliability of EATS 2D were fair to reasonable. Conclusions: The development of EATS 2D is promising since it provides a way of deriving utilities based on perceived autonomy of individual users. This implies that comparisons between services and technologies in different areas are possible, providing the rehabilitation field with a new essential tool for economic evaluation.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Aged
- Disabled Persons
- Eating
- Health Status
- Health Status Indicators
- Humans
- Interviews as Topic
- Italy
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Research Design
- Self-Help Devices
- Sickness Impact Profile
- Sweden
- hsrmtgs
Other ID:
UI: 102271934
From Meeting Abstracts