Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 The European Journal of Health Economics https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-020-01178-9 ORIGINAL PAPER Health‑related quality of life in elderly people with hypertension and the estimation of minimally important diference using EQ‑5D‑5L in Hong Kong SAR, China Eliza Lai Yi Wong 1  · Richard Huan Xu 1  · Annie Wai Ling Cheung 1 Received: 7 November 2019 / Accepted: 10 March 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Objective This study examined health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in elderly patients with hypertension in Hong Kong (HK) by using EQ-5D-5L and estimated the minimally important diference (MID) of the EQ-5D-5L index score for this population. Method We analysed secondary data from a population-based cross-sectional patient experience survey in HK. The EQ- 5D-5L HK version was used to assess patients’ HRQoL. The mean EQ-5D index scores for diferent subgroups were evalu- ated by ANOVA. Tobit regression models were used to investigate the relationship between hypertension and HRQoL. An instrument-defned approach was adopted to estimate the MID of the EQ-5D-5L index score. Result A total of 3,351 patients’ records met the selection criteria and were used in this study for our analysis. The mean age was 72.74 years, and 54.97% of respondents were female. The mean EQ-5D index score was 0.83. Most of the respondents (83.36%) reported having no problem with self-care. The Tobit regression model indicated that an increasing number of chronic conditions co-morbidity with hypertension contribute to a decrease in the EQ-5D index score. The overall MID esti- mate of the EQ-5D index score was 0.0917 and the adjusted MID was 0.0715. The MID estimates varied among respondents of diferent sexes and ages. Conclusion The HRQoL and MID estimate of EQ-5D for elderly individuals with hypertension was reported, which provide valuable information for assisting health-care professionals in making clinical decisions in hypertensive care. Keywords Health-related quality of life · Hypertension · Elderly patients · Minimally important diference · EQ-5D · Hong Kong · China JEL Classifcation I10 C1 Introduction Hypertension is a serious medical condition that causes peo- ple’s health to deteriorate across their entire lifespan. As esti- mated by World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1.13 billion people are currently living with hypertension worldwide [1]. Hypertension is common among the elderly. In the UK, at least 50% of adults over 65 years have reported living with high blood pressure (a reading of 140/90 or higher) [2]. In the USA, nearly 80% of individuals aged 50 years or older live with high blood pressure or systolic hypertension [3]. In Hong Kong (HK), the prevalence of hypertension is nearly 65% among people aged 65–84 years [4]. Hypertension is usually asymptomatic; however, when it is left uncontrolled, it could increase the risk of developing many life-threatening complications and lead to poor physi- cal and mental health-related quality of life (HRQoL) [5–7]. HRQoL has become increasingly important in clinical practice, and research into hypertension over the last decades [8], and provides a multidimensional perspective in that it Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-020-01178-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Richard Huan Xu richardhxu@cuhk.edu.hk 1 The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China