New EQ-5D-5L value set for the United Kingdom published

We are delighted to announce the publication of the new EQ-5D-5L value set for the United Kingdom in Value in Health. The value set reflects the preferences of the UK general population and can be used to score EQ-5D-5L for use in health technology assessment (HTA) and policy decision-making. Subject to a period of public consultation, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) plans to adopt this as the preferred value set for the UK. This will be reflected in updates to NICE’s technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies guidance methods manual, HealthTech manual and guidelines manual during 2026.

Data collection for the EQ-5D-5L valuation study started in 2022 and included 1200 interviews with a representative sample of the adult population from across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to identify preferences for EQ-5D-5L health states. The study used state-of-the-art methodologies, and data quality was rigorously and independently assessed throughout the study. The study was overseen by a Steering Group, which included academic experts, representatives from NICE, the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, and representatives from EuroQol.

The EuroQol Executive Committee and Board would like to express their gratitude to the research team, and in particular to the Principal Investigator, Prof. Donna Rowen (Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield) for her leadership of this complex project. We would also like to thank the members of the Steering Group, the Quality Control team (which was independent of the study team) and EuroQol’s valuation technology (EQ-VT) support team.

The UK EQ-5D-5L value set manuscript is available online (with open access). Supplementary materials including scoring algorithms (including SAS, SPSS, R and Excel) can be found on the EuroQol website.

For more information about the public consultation that will follow the publication of the UK value set, please see the NICE website. For more information about EQ-5D-5L and other EQ-5D instruments, please visit the EuroQol website.

About EQ-5D-5L

EQ-5D-5L is a self-reported generic measure of health-related quality of life thathttps://www.nice.org.uk/ is widely used internationally. Responses to questions in the EQ-5D-5L across five dimensions of health (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, anxiety/depression) provide a health state profile for the participant on the day the questionnaire was completed.

NICE, the Scottish Medicines Consortium and the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group all recommend the use of the EQ-5D to generate QALYs for HTA. EQ-5D-5L was introduced by EuroQol in 2009, to improve the instrument’s sensitivity and to reduce ceiling effects, as compared to the original EQ-5D-3L. Prior to the availability of this new UK EQ-5D-5L value set, NICE recommended that EQ-5D-5L data should be scored by mapping to the UK EQ-5D-3L value set.

About EuroQol

The EuroQol Research Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that develops, makes available and supports the use of instruments, such as EQ-5D-5L, with the widest possible applicability for the measurement and valuation of health. For further information please visit the EuroQol website.