Bleeding out the quality-adjusted life years: evaluating the burden of primary dysmenorrhea using time trade-off and willingness-to-pay methods

Abstract

Primary dysmenorrhea (PD), or painful menstruation in the absence of identified uterine pathology, affects five to nine in every 10 reproductive-aged women. Despite its high prevalence, just a few studies with very small patient numbers have focused on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) impairment in PD. We aimed to assess HRQoL values for a severe and a mild hypothetical PD health state by 10-year time trade-off (TTO) and willingness-topay (WTP) methods. In 2015, a nationwide convenience sample of women, aged between 18 and 40 years, was recruited using an Internet-based cross-sectional survey in Hungary. Respondents with a known history of secondary dysmenorrhea were excluded. Data on 1,836 and 160 women, with and without a history of PD, respectively, were analysed. Mean utility values for the severe and mild health states were 0.85 (median 0.95) and 0.94, (median 1), respectively. Participants were willing to pay a mean of &OV0556;1,127 (median &OV0556;161) and &OV0556;142 (median &OV0556;16) for a complete cure from the severe and mild PD health states. Compared to the non-PD group, women with PD valued both health states worse according to WTP (p<0.05), but similar in the TTO. It seems that PD substantially contributes to the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) loss in this age group, which is comparable to losses from chronic diseases such as type 1 diabetes, asthma, atopic eczema or chronic migraine. Our findings provide a useful input to cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses of PD treatments.