How are child-specific utility instruments used in decision-making in Australia?

The QUOKKA team was delighted to publish one of our first QUOKKA manuscripts, on the use of child-specific utilities in decision-making in Australia. Published in PharmacoEconomics, this paper was authored by Dr Cate Bailey, Prof Kim Dalziel and Prof Nancy Devlin from Health Economics Unit with colleagues from Paula Cronin and Rosalie Viney from the University of Technology Sydney. This paper found that despite the growing literature on economic analysis in paediatric populations, the use of child-specific HRQOL measures in submissions to the PBAC was minimal. The submissions had inconsistent approaches, often used adult measures and weights, and there were substantial gaps in evidence. We recommend the consistent use of child-specific measures to improve the evidence-base for decisions about medicines for children in Australia.