Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Health Utility Attributes for Chronic Conditions

  • Original Research Article
  • Published:
Disease Management and Health Outcomes

Abstract

Objective

To determine the importance of specific health utility attributes that comprise overall utility scores for a number of chronic health state conditions.

Study design

Cross-sectional study using data from a prospective national survey of the health of community-dwelling Canadians.

Study population

47 534 individuals who answered both health questions and utility questions (51.8% male).

Methods

The attributes making up the Health Utilities Index (HUI-Mark III) scores (i.e. vision, hearing, speech, ambulation, dexterity, emotion, cognition and pain) for 21 chronic conditions were examined from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) 1996 to 1997. Conditions included Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis/rheumatism, asthma, back problems excluding arthritis, bowel disorder, chronic bronchitis or emphysema, cancer, cataracts, diabetes, epilepsy, food allergies, glaucoma, heart disease, hypertension, migraine headaches, other allergies, sinusitis, stroke, stomach/intestinal ulcers, thyroid conditions and urinary incontinence. HUI-Mark III scores for patients without an NPHS-defined chronic condition were also collected. All conditions were mutually exclusive.

Results

The mean HUI-Mark III score for patients without a chronic health state was 0.953 ± 0.060. Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (0.846 ± 0.168), stroke (0.869 ± 0.163) and arthritis/rheumatism (0.883 ± 0.132) had the lowest overall HUI-Mark III scores. Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (28.6%), epilepsy (23.1%) and urinary incontinence (19.8%) reported higher scores on the emotional impairment attribute. Individuals with arthritis/rheumatism (24.7%) and back problems (20.6%) had high levels of pain/discomfort. Patients with stroke (16.4%) had low mobility scores.

Conclusion

By determining which attributes are important to chronic health conditions, this study provides health economists, researchers and policy makers with a reference of health state attributes for various chronic conditions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Table I
Table II
Table III
Table IV
Table V
Table VI
Table VII
Table VIII
Table IX

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Drammond M, O’Brien B, Stoddart G, et al. Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programs. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997

    Google Scholar 

  2. Gold MR, Siegel JE, Russell LB, et al. Cost-effectiveness in health and medicine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996

    Google Scholar 

  3. Robinson R. Cost-utility analysis. BMJ 1993; 307: 859–62

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Boyle M, Furlong W, Feeny D, et al. Reliability of the Health Utilities Index-Mark III used in the 1991 cycle 6 Canadian General Survey Health Questionnaire. Qual Life Res 1995; 4: 249–57

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Fergusson BM, Keown PA. An introduction to utility measurement in health care. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1995; 16(4): 240–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Mittmann N, Trakas K, Risebrough N, et al. Utility scores for chronic conditions in a community dwelling population. Pharmacoeconomics 1999; 15(4): 369–76

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Rizzo JA, Pashko S, Friedkin R, et al. Linking the health utilities index to National Medical Expenditure Survey Data. Pharmacoeconomics 1998; 13 (5 Pt 1): 531–41

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Fryback DG, Dasbach EJ, Klein R, et al. The Beaver Dam Health Outcomes Study: initial catalog of health-state quality factors. Med Decis Making 1993; 13: 89–102

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Lundberg L, Johannesson M, Isacson D, et al. Health-state utilities in a general population in relation to age, gender and socioeconomic factors. Eur J Pub Health 1999; 9(3): 211–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Feeny D, Torrance G, Furlong W. Health Utilities Index. In: Spilker B, editor. Quality of life and pharmacoeconomics in clinical trials. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven Publishers, 1996: 239–52

    Google Scholar 

  11. Health Utility Index (HUI) [online]. Available from http://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/hug/ [Accessed 2000 Nov 10]

  12. Statistics Canada. National Population Health Survey. Report no. 82M0009XCB. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 1996–97

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Statistics Canada for access to the National Population Health Survey (1996–1997). The opinions expressed in this manuscript do not reflect those of Statistics Canada.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. HOPE Research Centre, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Nicole Mittmann (Assistant Professor, Scientist, Director of Pharmacoeconomics), Kostas Trakas & Nancy Risebrough

  2. Department of Pharmacology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Nicole Mittmann (Assistant Professor, Scientist, Director of Pharmacoeconomics), Derek Chan & Kostas Trakas

Authors
  1. Nicole Mittmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Derek Chan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kostas Trakas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Nancy Risebrough
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicole Mittmann.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mittmann, N., Chan, D., Trakas, K. et al. Health Utility Attributes for Chronic Conditions. Dis-Manage-Health-Outcomes 9, 11–21 (2001). https://doi.org/10.2165/00115677-200109010-00002

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2165/00115677-200109010-00002

Keywords

Search

Navigation