Rural population’s preferences matter: a value set for the EQ-5D-3L health states for China’s rural population

PURPOSE: To develop an EQ-5D-3L social value set based on Chinese rural population’s preferences using the time trade-off (TTO) method, and to compare the differences in preferences on health states between China urban and rural population. METHODS: Between Sep 2013 and Nov 2013, a total of 1201 participants were recruited from rural areas of five Chinese cities (Beijing, Chengdu, Guiyang, Nanjing, and Shenyang) using a quota sampling method. Each respondent valued 13 health states using the TTO, and a total of 97 EQ-5D-3L health states were directly valued for estimating the value set. Various models with different specifications were explored at both aggregate and individual levels. The final model was determined by a set of predefined selection criteria. FINDINGS: An ordinary least square model at the aggregate level included 10 dummy variables for specifying the level 2 and 3 for each dimension and an N3 term presenting any dimension on level 3 was selected as the final model. The final model provides a value set ranges from − 0.218 to 0.859. The predicted utility values were highly correlated with but consistently lower than that of the published Chinese EQ-5D-3L value set (for urban population). CONCLUSION: The availability of the China rural value set provides a set of social preferences weights for researchers and policy decision-makers for use in China rural area. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12955-022-01917-x.