EQ-5D-5L (Five-Level EuroQol)

EQ-5D-5L

health sciencespsychologyLicensed — permission required

A generic preference-based measure of health-related quality of life across five dimensions: Mobility, Self-Care, Usual Activities, Pain/Discomfort, and Anxiety/Depression. Each dimension has five response levels. The descriptive system is accompanied by a visual analogue scale (EQ VAS) rating overall health today from 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

Items

Response format

5-level response scale per item + 0–100 visual analogue scale

Version

1.0

Subscales

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Health-related quality of life was measured using the EQ-5D-5L (Herdman et al., 2011) under licence from the EuroQol Research Foundation. Participants rated five dimensions of health today and a 0–100 visual analogue scale. Descriptive profiles were converted to utility indices using the [country] value set.

Reliability & validation

notes

Internal-consistency α is not typically reported because the five dimensions are conceptually independent. Test-retest, construct validity, and responsiveness are the standard psychometric evidence.

Validation population

General population and patient samples across multiple countries

Cronbach's α

null

Subscales

MobilitySelf-CareUsual ActivitiesPain/DiscomfortAnxiety/DepressionEQ VAS (overall health today)

Known limitations

LICENSED — register at https://euroqol.org/ before administration. Scoring requires selecting and applying a country-specific value set (e.g., UK, US, Japan); report which value set was used. Do NOT sum the dimension levels as a raw score. The EQ VAS and the utility index are distinct outcomes and typically reported separately.

Original citation

Herdman, M., Gudex, C., Lloyd, A., Janssen, M., Kind, P., Parkin, D., Bonsel, G., Badia, X. (2011). Development and preliminary testing of the new five-level version of EQ-5D (EQ-5D-5L). Quality of Life Research, 20(10), 1727-1736.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-011-9903-x

This instrument is licensed. Obtain permission from the copyright holder before using it in your study.

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Library entry verified January 2024. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.