Objective: To provide health-related quality of life (HRQoL) data to support health technology assessment (HTA) and reimbursement decisions in Romania, by developing a country-specific value set for the EQ-5D-3L questionnaire. Methods: We used the cTTO method to elicit health state values using a computer-assisted personal interviewing approach. Interviews were standardized following the most recent version of the EQ-VT protocol developed by the EuroQoL Foundation. Thirty EQ-5D-3L health states were randomly assigned to respondents in blocks of three. Econometric modeling was used to estimate values for all 243 states described by the EQ-5D-3L. Results: Data from 1556 non-institutionalized adults aged 18 years and older, selected from a national representative sample, were used to build the value set. All tested models were logically consistent; the final model chosen to generate the value set was an interval regression model. The predicted EQ-5D-3L values ranged from 0.969 to 0.399, and the relative importance of EQ-5D-3L dimensions was in the following order: mobility, pain/discomfort, self-care, anxiety/depression, and usual activities. Conclusions: These results can support reimbursement decisions and allow regional cross-country comparisons between health technologies. This study lays a stepping stone in the development of a health technology assessment process more driven by locally relevant data in Romania.
Value proposition can be an important source of competitive advantage for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Unlike large companies which follow a rational and sequential process, developing a value proposition in an SME is instead a trial and error process. Therefore, those companies are experimenting with various options. The purpose of this paper was to identify the value strategies used by SMEs based on value dimensions and attributes and to find specific groups of SMEs with a similar market approach. We present a theoretical framework on customer value creation and customer value communication, followed by a quantitative research on 399 Romanian SMEs. We used a principal component analysis to reduce the number of choices and afterwards we ran a cluster analysis to identify the distinct groups of SMEs using specific value propositions. We found that there are three major strategic options based on customer experience, affordability and customization, and four distinct clusters: customer delight (A), multiple sources of differentiation (B), one-to-one marketing (C) and cost—effectiveness (D). Three groups use distinct value propositions—A focuses on customer experience, C on customization, D on affordability—while B mixes all of them.
The strong interdependency between economic growth and conventional energy consumption have led to significant environmental impact, especially with respect to greenhouse gas emissions. Conventional energy-intensive industries release increasing quantities every year, which has prompted global leaders to consider new approaches based on sustainable consumption. The main purpose of this research is to propose a new energy index that accounts for the complexity and interdependences between the research variables. The methodology is based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and combines the key components determined into a score that allows for both temporal and cross-country comparisons. All data analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25™. The main findings show that most countries improved their economic performance since 2014, but the speed of the improvement varies a lot from one country to another. The final score determined reflects the complex changes taking place in each country and the efficiency of the governmental measures for sustainable economic growth based on low energy consumption and low environmental pollution.
Objective We aimed to develop an EQ-5D-5L value set for Romania. Methods In line with the EuroQoL standardized valuation protocol, computer-assisted interviews were conducted face-to-face in a representative sample in Romania (November 2018–November 2019). Valuation methods included composite time trade-off and discrete choice experiment tasks. Several models were tested, including models that accounted for data censoring, panel structure of the data, heteroscedasticity, conditional logit, and hybrid models. The final model was selected based on logical consistency, theoretical considerations, and use of all available data. We compared our value set with other value sets from Central and Eastern Europe region. Results Data from 1493 respondents was used to estimate the value set. A censored hybrid model corrected for heteroscedasticity was selected to represent the value set. The highest decrements in utility were observed for the pain/discomfort dimension (0.375), followed by the mobility dimension (0.293). Health utilities ranged from 1.000 to − 0.323 and 1.3% of the values were negative. The model was corrected with survey weights to better reflect the representativeness of the sample, but the first two coefficients of the self-care dimension stopped being logically consistent. Differences were found between the Romanian, Hungarian and Polish EQ-5D-5L value sets. Good agreement was noted with the Romanian EQ-5D-3L value set, with a swap between pain/discomfort and mobility in ranking of dimensions. Conclusion A value set for EQ-5D-5L is now available for Romania. This will push one-step further the development of health technology assessment and encourage more health-related quality-of-life research to be conducted locally.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.