Health state utility values of osteoporotic fractures among Korean women

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate health state utility values in eight health states related to osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures using time trade-off (TTO) technique among postmenopausal Korean women. Methods: Scenarios describing eight health states including osteoporosis and hip, vertebral, post-hip, post-vertebral, ankle, humerus, and wrist fractures were developed and presented to 500 female participants aged 45 to 59 years who were selected with probability proportionate to age group and region for this investigation. Each health states valuation was derived using the trade-off (TTO) technique. Ten years of a given health state was traded off with a shorter length of time in full health. Results: Mean scores of each state were calculated. Osteoporosis scored the highest (0.669 +/- 0.155), followed by wrist fracture (0.656 +/- 0.151). Hip (0.298 +/- 0.158) and vertebral (0.298 +/- 0.160) fractures were found to be the worst health states. Post-hip (0.446 +/- 0.159) and post-vertebral fractures (0.455 +/- 0.160) were also considered undesirable states. All fractures were associated with disutilities, ranging from a mean of -0.013 to -0.371. These values were statistically significant (p < 0.0001). Hip and vertebral fractures are among the most serious consequences of osteoporotic fractures. Conclusions: The vertebral and hip fractures marked the lowest utility scores among post-menopausal women in Korea.