Objective: To obtain preliminary health state utility values for oral precancer, and stage 1 and stage 2 (or greater) oral cancer, for use in a study involving quality of life measurement.
Design: Members of the general public were personally interviewed and asked to complete a standard gamble questionnaire in which each individual had to choose between having oral cancer or precancer (a description of each stage and its treatment was given), and being perfectly healthy but with a probability (p) from 0 to 1, of immediate death. There were three questions, the first related to a state of oral precancer, the second to a small cancer (< 2 cm) and the third to a large oral cancer (> 2 cm). The utility of each state was equal to the probability that the subject would opt for having the disease (1-p). The pooled responses of all subjects were analysed using a Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test.
Setting: The premises of a commercial company.
Participants: A convenience, quota sample of 100 employees aged 40 years or over.
Results: The mean utility values obtained were: oral precancer = 0.92; small oral cancer = 0.88; large oral cancer = 0.68. There was a significant difference between all three states (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: The study relied on a convenience sample to elicit the public's perceptions of different oral cancer states. Nevertheless, despite this limitation, it was considered that the utility values derived were suitable for incorporation in measurements of quality adjusted life years.