Influence of elicitation procedure and phrasing on health state valuations in experience-based time trade-off tasks among diabetes patients in China

Purpose Open-ended and iteration-based time trade-off (TTO) tasks can both be used for valuation of health states. It has so far not been examined how the elicitation procedure affects the valuation of experience-based health states. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of elicitation procedure on experience-based health state values elicited by the TTO method. Methods 156 Chinese adults with type 2 diabetes participated in face-to-face interviews with an open-ended or an iteration-based TTO task. The association between the type of TTO task and the valuation of health states was investigated through multiple linear regression analyses. A modified open-ended TTO task was also developed ( n = 33) to test whether different phrasings of open-ended TTO tasks influence TTO values. Results Higher TTO values were observed in the original open-ended TTO task compared to the iteration-based task, which indicates that the elicitation procedure influences the valuation of health states. When the modified open-ended task was introduced, the difference between the two elicitation procedures was no longer statistically significant, suggesting that the phrasing and/or visual presentation of the TTO task may influence the valuation of health states. Conclusions The choice of elicitation procedure as well as the description of experience-based TTO tasks may influence the valuation of health states. Further research is warranted, also in other cultural contexts, to further explore these findings.