Angie Rees, Suzy Paisley, John Brazier, Anna Cantrell, Edith Poku, Kath Williams ScHARR, University of Sheffield, November 2013

s.paisley@sheffield.ac.uk

ruth.wong@sheffield.ac.uk

www.facebook.com/scharrsheffield

School Of

Health

And

Related

Research

ScHARRHUD Health Utilities Database

@scharrhud

@scharrheds

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this project is to develop a

database providing access to bibliographic details of studies

containing health state utility values generated using the EQ-5D

and other preference-based instruments.

RESULTS:

• ScHARRHUD alpha

contains over 3,500

potentially relevant studies.

• Several hundred studies

have been data extracted

and indexed.

• 150+ measures, including

generic preference-based,

general wellbeing and

health status and condition-

specific measures have

been indexed.

•A beta version of the

database, using bespoke

software (Metaxis™) is

currently undergoing ad

hoc testing. Public access

is planned for autumn

2013.

(Figure 2.)

Identify EQ-5D studies

(Medline search and existing systematic reviews)

Create ScHARRHUD database

(alpha version)

Sift to identify studies reporting HSUVs

Extract names of all instruments used in studies

Create searchable index of instrument names

Fig 1. Database development process

METHODS: The initial project phase focuses on the EQ-5D. An

alpha version of the database was created using Mendeley™

software. A corpus of potentially relevant studies was identified via

Medline™ and by sifting reference lists of systematic reviews of

HSUVs in a range of conditions. Bibliographic details of studies

were included if they contained estimates of HSUVs. The names

of instruments used in the studies, including and in addition to the

EQ-5D, were extracted and added to the database to create a

searchable index of instruments. (Figure 1.)

ScHARRHUD

• is an innovative database aimed at improving

access to health utilities evidence.

• is aimed at anybody who undertakes or who uses

health technology assessments (HTAs).

• holds bibliographic details of studies reporting

health state utility values (HSUVs).

• is searchable by the names of health state

valuation instruments used in each study.

•this level of indexing aims to make the retrieval of

health utilities evidence both more efficient and

effective.

•whilst the focus is on generic, preference-based

measures, such as the EQ-5D, the database

extracts and indexes the names of all instruments

used in studies.

CONCLUSIONS: ScHARRHUD aims to improve

efficiency and effectiveness in HSUV evidence

retrieval in studies using the EQ-5D, with a view to

increasing database coverage to include all major

preference-based utility measures.

BACKGROUND: The retrieval of studies containing evidence of

health state utility values is problematic using generic bibliographic

databases such as Medline ™. This is due to a lack of standardised

search vocabulary and inadequate indexing.

ScHARRHUD alpha version contains 500+

studies identified as relevant

150+ instrument names

extracted and indexed

Generic preference-based

measures

General wellbeing and health

status measures

Condition-specific measures

ScHARRHUD beta version publicly

accessible from autumn 2013

Figure 2: Results

Acknowledgements:

ScHARRHUD alpha was

funded by the NIHR RDS

Yorkshire and Humber