The measurement properties of the EQ Health and Wellbeing (EQ-HWB) and EQ Health and Wellbeing Short form (EQ-HWB-S) in Italian Population: A Comparative Study with EQ-5D-5L

Objectives The EQ Health and Wellbeing, EQ-HWB (25-item) and the EQ-HWB-S (9-item), are new generic measures of health and wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to examine the measurement properties of the EQ-HWB and EQ-HWB-S measures in relation to the EQ-5D-5L among the Italian general population. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted from October 2020 to February 2021, followed by secondary analysis of collected data from Italian adults. This analysis included response pattern distributions, correlation strength, and known group comparison (KGC). KGC was assessed using effect sizes (ES) across health conditions, caregiver status, and social care usage. The EQ-HWB-S index-based score was based on the UK pilot value set, while the Italian value set was used for scoring the EQ-5D-5L index. Results Out of the 1,182 participants, 461 reported having a chronic condition, 185 identified as caregivers, and 42 were social care users. EQ-HWB items (7.5%) showed fewer ceiling effects than EQ-5D-5L items (34.7%). Strong correlations (rs>0.5) were found between overlapping EQ-HWB and EQ-5D-5L items. EQ-HWB-S and EQ-5D-5L index scores demonstrated similar discrimination based on symptomatic chronic conditions (ES d=0.68 vs. d=0.71), but EQ-HWB-S had slightly higher ES for social care users (ES d=0.84 vs. d=0.74). Conclusion Initial evidence supports the validity of EQ-HWB/EQ-HWB-S as outcome measures in the Italian population. EQ-HWB-S performed comparably to EQ-5D-5L among patients and was better in differentiating social care users. A slight decrease in discriminative properties for caregivers was observed when transitioning from EQ-HWB to EQ-HWB-S.