Measuring the Indirect Cost of Illness Using EQ-5D-5L While Accounting for Job Characteristics

BACKGROUND: The EQ-5D-5L questionnaire is used to measure treatment effects on the quality of life. For cost-utility analyses, EQ-5D-5L profiles are assigned numbers representing societal preferences (index weights). On the cost side, the indirect costs are frequently included: the value of product lost due to illness-related absences (absenteeism) or diminished productivity (presenteeism). The possibility to use EQ-5D data to estimate absenteeism and presenteeism (A&P) would be useful, if real-world data on A&P are lacking. However, beyond-health factors may also matter for A&P. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to assess how A&P depend on the EQ-5D-5L profile, while accounting for job characteristics (e.g. remote or in-office). METHODS: We surveyed 756 employed Poles. Respondents reported their job characteristics and evaluated the impact of eight hypothetical EQ-5D-5L profiles on A&P (two blocks of states used). Econometric modelling was used to establish the determinants of A&P. RESULTS: Both A&P increase with health problems as indicated across EQ-5D-5L dimensions (especially mobility and self-care), and this impact differs from the impact on index weight (e.g. pain/discomfort barely impact the A&P). The job characteristics mattered: absenteeism decreases in sedentary occupations and increases in those occupations performed remotely or requiring cooperation, while presenteeism increases in jobs performed remotely and decreases for those requiring creative thinking. CONCLUSIONS: The entire EQ-5D-5L profile, not just index weights, should be used to estimate A&P. That job characteristics matter may be relevant in applications, as some diseases concentrate in specific subgroups. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40273-023-01267-6.