OBJECTIVES: Chronic spontaneous/idiopathic urticaria (CSU/CIU) can significantly impact patients’ lives when inadequately controlled. Real-world data on health status and utility values for CSU are unavailable. The present analysis reports EQ-5D health status from the ASSURE-CSU study.
METHODS: ASSURE-CSU is an observational study, which included a 1-year retrospective medical record abstraction, a cross-sectional patient-reported survey, and a 7-day prospective patient diary. Adult patients with symptomatic disease despite treatment were recruited in 7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom). Patients completed twice-daily Urticaria Activity Score summed over 7 days (UAS7TD), used to define disease activity categories: score 0 (urticaria-free), 1-6 (well-controlled urticaria), 7-15 (mild), 16-27 (moderate), and 28-42 (severe). The EQ-5D-3L is a standardised, preference-based measure of health status comprised of five domains (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression), scored on a scale of 1 to 3 (no to extreme problems). A single index utility value was calculated ranging from 0 (death) to 1 (perfect health). Pooled country data were analysed using descriptive statistics and stratified by UAS7TD categories.
RESULTS: A total of 627 patients completed EQ-5D. The mean (SD) EQ-5D utility score estimate was 0.714 (0.2907). Mean (SD) utility decreased as UAS7TD disease activity increased: 0.826 (0.2147), 0.758 (0.2524), 0.674 (0.3077), and 0.601 (0.3423) for urticaria-free/well-controlled, mild, moderate, and severe urticaria respectively. Pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression were the most frequently affected domains, with patients reporting moderate (52.2% and 39.2%, respectively) and extreme (11.0% and 8.2%, respectively) problems. The percentage of patients reporting moderate or extreme problems was higher on all five domains among those with high activity.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients with increasing activity of CSU had a consistent decrease in utility scores, reflecting a lower QoL. Patients reported complaints related to pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. Utility values reported in real-world are consistent with those recently published from omalizumab in CSU phase III trials.