Is the vignette method used to assess quality of life in practice?

Purpose. To define how extensive is the use of the vignettes method for quality of life assessment.

Methods. An internet search of different databases was performed to identify and enumerate the publications involving studies in which the vignettes method is employed in relation to quality of life assessment (QoL). PubMed-Medline and Cochrane were scrutinized for publications based on the same search criteria.

Results. Our search found that 6 Cochrane and 105 Medline publications, as well as 28 articles were published between 2011-2014. However, only 7 match the objective of the search.

Conclusion. The rating of vignettes is a promising additional technique to measure changes in QoL and utilities, however, it is not very often employed by the researchers. It can be considered for use as supplementary method to standard QoL measurement methods.