HEQ (Health Economics Questionnaire)

Introduction: The HEQ (Health Economics Questionnaire) is a comprehensive, self-reported health economics questionnaire measuring health and social care resource use, medication, absenteeism and presenteeism at work, other productivity impacts as well as socio-demographic background information. It was developed based on several years of international experience with within-trial (mental) health economic evaluations and implemented first in the multi-country European PreDicT study in 2016. Further language versions are also available in Dutch, French, German and Spanish.

To allow for resource-use measurement in times of pandemics, the questionnaire has been updated and complemented with a COVID-19 resource-use measurement module (Module 7) to capture further information about COVID-19 infections, self-isolation and related changes in health services use and employment status in 2020. The HEQ COVID-19 now both reflects the changed service provision landscape and having direct information on any COVID-19 related service use. The HEQ Covid-19 has been implemented for example in the UK-based PAX-BD study and the PAX-D study. Currently it is available in two languages: English and German.

Access: The use of the HEQ is free for non-commercial purposes and is conditional upon correct citation in any resulting work/publication. Samples of the baseline and follow-up English language questionnaires can be viewed here: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4559790

The use of the HEQ COVID-19 is free for non-commercial purposes and is conditional upon correct citation in any resulting work/publication. Samples of the baseline and follow-up English language questionnaires can be viewed here: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4559752

Note: All existing versions of the HEQ will not be updated in the future. Instead, we encourage the use of the comprehensive new PECUNIA resource use measurement (RUM) instrument developed as part of the European research project PECUNIA (2018-2021). The PECUNIA RUM is an internationally standardised, harmonised and validated, generic, self-reported modular instrument that measures resource use in all relevant sectors for costing from a societal perspective in the adult population. Further information and access details can be found on https://www.pecunia-project.eu/tools/rum-instrument.

Citation:

HEQ:

• Simon, J & Mayer, S (2016) HEQ (Health Economics Questionnaire), Version 08-09-2016, Department of Health Economics, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4559790
• Kingslake J, Dias R, Dawson GR, Simon J, Goodwin GM, Harmer CJ, et al. (2017) The effects of using the PReDicT Test to guide the antidepressant treatment of depressed patients: Study Protocol for a Randomised Controlled Trial. Trials. DOI: 10.1186/s13063-017-2247-2

HEQ COVID-19:

• Simon, J & Mayer, S (2021): HEQ COVID-19, Version 24-02-2021, Department of Health Economics, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4559752
• Azim L, Hindmarch P, Browne G, Chadwick T, Clare E, Courtney P, et al. Study protocol for a randomised placebo-controlled trial of pramipexole in addition to mood stabilisers for patients with treatment resistant bipolar depression (the PAX-BD study). BMC Psychiatry. 2021 Jul 5;21:334. DOI: 10.1186/s12888-021-03322-y

Contact: For further information or commercial users, please send an email to dhe@meduniwien.ac.at

^{Authors and copyright:
HEQ: © Judit Simon/Susanne Mayer, Medical University of Vienna, 2016
HEQ COVID-19: © Judit Simon/Susanne Mayer, Medical University of Vienna, 2020}