Custom value sets

Introduction

New EQ-5D value sets are published regularly. Rather than waiting for a package update, eq5dsuite allows you to add your own value sets using eqvs_add(). Custom value sets work with all scoring and analysis functions in the package.

Adding a custom value set

A custom value set must be a data frame with two columns:

state — the EQ-5D health state code (integer)
A column named after the VS_code containing utility values

# Generate all valid 3L health state codes
states <- make_all_EQ_indexes(version = "3L")

# Create a custom value set (random values for illustration)
set.seed(42)
custom_vs <- data.frame(
  state  = states,
  MY_VS  = runif(243, min = -0.5, max = 1.0)
)

head(custom_vs)
#>   state      MY_VS
#> 1 11111  0.8722091
#> 2 11112  0.9056131
#> 3 11113 -0.0707907
#> 4 11121  0.7456714
#> 5 11122  0.4626183
#> 6 11123  0.2786439

# Register for current session only (saveOption = 1)
eqvs_add(
  custom_vs,
  version     = "3L",
  country     = "My Country",
  countryCode = "MC",
  VSCode      = "MY_VS",
  description = "Custom value set — demonstration",
  saveOption  = 1
)

# Verify it appears in the list
eqvs_display(version = "3L")

# Use it for value calculation
eq5d3l(c(11111, 12321), country = "MY_VS")

Saving a custom value set permanently

To persist a custom value set across R sessions, use saveOption = 2:

eqvs_add(
  custom_vs,
  version     = "3L",
  country     = "My Country",
  countryCode = "MC",
  VSCode      = "MY_VS",
  description = "Custom value set — permanent",
  saveOption  = 2  # saves to user cache
)

Load it in a new session with:

eqvs_load(country = "MY_VS", version = "3L")

Removing a custom value set

eqvs_drop(
  country    = "MY_VS",
  version    = "3L",
  saveOption = 1  # remove from current session only
)

Validation

eqvs_add() validates the value set before registration:

For 3L: checks all 243 health states are present
For 5L: checks all 3125 health states are present
Checks values are numeric with no duplicates

Using custom value sets with crosswalk methods

Custom value sets are fully compatible with all crosswalk functions:

# Use custom 3L value set with original crosswalk
eqxw(
  eq5d5l_data,
  country   = "MY_VS",
  dim.names = c("mo", "sc", "ua", "pd", "ad")
)

Keeping value sets up to date

Use update_value_sets() to automatically check for and install newly published value sets from the eq5dsuite online repository:

update_value_sets()

See vignette("update-value-sets") for full details.