EQ-5D-Y-5L launched! A new EuroQol instrument providing children and adolescents with a wider range of options to describe their HRQoL

Launched as an approved EuroQol Group instrument today, the EQ-5D-Y-5L is a new generic measure of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for use with children and adolescents. The EQ-5D-Y-5L covers the same five dimensions of health in its descriptive system questionnaire as the EQ-5D-Y-3L (formerly EQ-5D-Y), but has five levels of response in each dimension instead of the original three. Having this wider range of response options allows respondents to describe their HRQoL more precisely. The visual analogue scale (EQ VAS) remains the same as in the three-level version.

The EQ-5D-Y-5L is available in digital and paper formats for self-completion (ages 8–15 years), with interviewer-administered and proxy versions (ages 4–15 years) also available. At launch, the EQ-5D-Y-5L is already available in more than 10 language versions, with more in development.

The EQ-5D-Y-5L is the culmination of a 10-year development programme that began in 2014. This robust research process included substantial input from children and adolescents to ensure relevance, acceptability and ease of understanding. Multiple studies in several countries and clinical populations have shown that the EQ-5D-Y-5L is a valid, reliable, and responsive measure of HRQoL.

The Board and Executive Committees of the EuroQol Group would like to express their gratitude to the multidisciplinary research teams involved, as well as to past and present members of EuroQol’s Younger Persons Working Group and the Version Management Committee who have overseen the development programme.

To find out more about the new instrument, including a user guide, please visit the EuroQol website.