A comparison of the EQ‐5D and SF‐6D across seven patient groups
Abstract
As the number of preference-based instruments grows, it becomes increasingly important to compare different preference-based measures of health in order to inform an important debate on the choice of instrument. This paper presents a comparison of two of them, the EQ-5D and the SF-6D (recently developed from the SF-36) across seven patient/population groups (chronic obstructive airways disease, osteoarthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, lower back pain, leg ulcers, post menopausal women and elderly). The mean SF-6D index value was found to exceed the EQ-5D by 0.045 and the intraclass correlation coefficient between them was 0.51. Whilst this convergence lends some support for the validity of these measures, the modest difference at the aggregate level masks more significant differences in agreement across the patient groups and over severity of illness, with the SF-6D having a smaller range and lower variance in values. There is evidence for floor effects in the SF-6D and ceiling effects in the EQ-5D. These discrepancies arise from differences in their health state classifications and the methods used to value them. Further research is required to fully understand the respective roles of the descriptive systems and the valuation methods and to examine the implications for estimates of the impact of health care interventions.
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The health status of FAs is comparable to people with long-term conditions who receive more structured care.
“The health status of FAs is comparable to people with long-term conditions who receive more structured care, often with specialist input.”
From Clinical characteristics of persistent frequent attenders in primary care: Case-control study (2015) · cites this paper as [26]
The Methods describe patient groups with conditions including COPD, IBS and osteoarthritis, and Table 6 (p. 880) reports their health-state values. The paper does not study FAs or compare their health status with these groups; it also does not establish that the groups received more structured care or specialist input. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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- Authors
- Brazier, J., Roberts, J., Tsuchiya, A., & Busschbach, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Sheffield (GB)
- EuroQol Research Foundation (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Brazier, John
- Venue
- Health Economics
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2004-01-09
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 873-884
- ISSN
- 1057-9230 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-1050
- OpenAlex
- W2110682994
- Cited by
- 797
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 40 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 54 · 2015: 43 · 2014: 62 · 2013: 61 · 2012: 45
- FWCI
- 51.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Health Economics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic and Environmental Valuation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Delphi Technique in Research
- Keywords
- EQ-5D, SF-6D, preference-based health measurement, health status classification, floor and ceiling effects, instrument comparison, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, osteoarthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, low back pain, leg ulcers, postmenopausal women, older adults, health state valuation
- MeSH terms
- Activities of Daily Living, Aged, Algorithms, Attitude to Health, Choice Behavior, England, Female, Health Status, Health Surveys, Humans, Leg Ulcer, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Osteoarthritis, Surveys and Questionnaires, Sensitivity and Specificity, Severity of Illness Index, Least-Squares Analysis, Low Back Pain, Postmenopause, Quality-Adjusted Life Years, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive, Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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