Master i Psykologi Thor Gamst-Klaussen disputerer for ph.d.-graden i helsevitenskap og vil offentlig forsvare avhandlingen:
“Three essays on measuring health-related quality of life: external and internal relationships of the EQ-5D-5L”
Kort sammendrag av avhandlingen:
The use of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) as a commensurable health outcome measure has been encouraged by health authorities in many countries in order to aid decisions on healthcare priorities. A key methodological challenge is to estimate preference-based weights for valuing health-related quality of life. The objective of this thesis was to provide improved knowledge of the usefulness of such measures with an emphasis on the most widely applied EQ-5D. More specifically, the thesis aims to: i) develop exchange rates across the various preference-based health instruments in order to enable comparisons of health outcomes from interventions that have been assessed by different instruments (Paper 1); ii) develop algorithms that can predict EQ-5D values from scores on depression scales to enable conversion of depression scale scores to a generic outcome metric like QALYs (Paper 2), and; iii) explore the causal and effect nature among the dimensions included in the EQ-5D descriptive system to provide insights into the discussion on how the system might be improved and extended (Paper 3). The analyses are based on a large international survey (N = 7,933) including six countries and seven disease groups.
Veiledere
Hovedveileder professor Jan Abel Olsen
Biveileder professor Joar Vittersø
Bedømmelseskomiteen
Førsteamanuensis Paul Krabbe, Department of Epidemiology, University of Groningen, Holland – 1. opponent
Senior forsker Andrew M. Garratt, Området for helsetjenester, Folkehelseinstituttet – 2. opponent
Førsteamanuensis Tonje Braaten, Institutt for samfunnsmedisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT – Norges arktiske universitet – leder av komité
Disputasleder
Førsteamanuensis Åge Wifstad, Insitutt for samfunnsmedisin, Det helsevitenskapelige fakultet, UiT – Norges arktiske universitet
Prøveforelesning over oppgitt emne holdes kl. 10.15, samme sted: “Generic preference-based instruments: different content, different methods, different results?”