PROSTATE-CANCER PATIENTS UTILITIES FOR HEALTH STATES - HOW IT LOOKS DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU STAND

Two versions of the time-tradeoff (TTO) method were compared. In the p ersonal TTO version, 31 prostate cancer patients decided whether they personally would give up some longevity to have perfect health rather than a longer life in a state of poor health associated with prostate cancer. in the impersonal version, 28 patients compared two hypothetic al friends, one of whom has perfect health but will live less time tha n the other who is in poor health, and decided which person they would rather be. All patients evaluated three hypothetical health states. T he two TTO methods were assessed by examining 1) how well they disting uished three health states of varying degrees of dysfunction and 2) pa tients' willingness to trade time for quality of life. Patients using the impersonal TTO version were more likely than those using the perso nal version to order the three health states appropriately (68% vs 16% , p < 0.0001) and were more willing to trade off length of life for qu ality of life (p < 0.05).