An application of the SF-6D to create heath values in Portuguese working age adults

Figures & data

Table 1.  Study sample characteristics.

Characteristic	n	%
Total sample	2,459	100
Gender
Female	1,429	58.1
Male	1,030	41.9
Age group (years)
18–24	560	22.8
25–34	219	8.9
35–44	1,095	44.5
45–54	489	19.9
55–64	96	3.9
Marital status
Married/living together	1,709	69.5
Single	626	25.5
Divorced/separated	71	2.9
Widowed	53	2.2
Educational level
Illiterate	136	5.5
Low	1,149	46.8
Middle	962	39.2
High	209	8.5
Employment status
Unskilled manual workers	786	34.6
Non-manual workers	1,023	45.0
Retired	41	1.8
Housewives	383	16.9
Unemployed	38	1.7
Residence
Urban area	907	36.9
Rural area	1,552	63.1

Table 2.  Chronic conditions of study sample (n=1,853).

	n	%
Musculoskeletal	1,158	62.5
Respiratory	680	36.7
Hypertension	554	29.9
Ophthalmological	428	23.1
Renal	381	20.6
Gastroenterological	305	16.5
Cardiovascular	249	13.4
Otorhinolaryngological	215	11.6
Other chronic diseases	209	11.3
Dermatological	143	7.7
Metabolic	130	7.0
Hepatic	84	4.5
Prostate	40	2.2
Neurological	32	1.7
Oncology	15	0.8
Sexually transmissible diseases	15	0.8
AIDS	13	0.7

AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Table 3.  Distribution of responses to SF-6D dimensions (%).

Level	Dimension
	Physical Functioning	Role Limitations	Social Functioning	Pain	Mental Health	Vitality
1	33.1	32.4	45.7	18.6	12.4	14.0
2	29.7	11.0	26.6	11.6	28.4	29.0
3	14.5	16.7	19.1	34.9	34.9	32.0
4	1.7	39.9	6.4	22.9	16.0	18.6
5	5.8	–	2.2	10.0	8.3	6.4
6	15.2	–	–	2.0	–	–
Total (n)	2,452	2,450	2,446	2,454	2,459	2,454

Modal level is in bold. The distribution adds up to 100% by columns.

Table 4.  Descriptive statistics of SF-6D dimensions.

Dimension	n	Mean (sd)	Min.	Max.
Physical Functioning	2,452	0.95 (0.04)	0.87	1.00
Role Limitations	2,450	0.95 (0.03)	0.93	1.00
Social Functioning	2,446	0.96 (0.04)	0.89	1.00
Pain	2,454	0.94 (0.04)	0.82	1.00
Mental Health	2,459	0.93 (0.04)	0.86	1.00
Vitality	2,454	0.99 (0.01)	0.96	1.00

sd, standard deviation; Min., minimum; Max., maximum.

Table 5.  Descriptive statistics of SF-6D values by gender, age group, marital status and educational level*.

Gender	Age (years)	n	Mean (sd)
Female	All ages	1,402	0.66 (0.14)
	18–24	324	0.71 (0.13)
	25–34	154	0.68 (0.14)
	35–44	642	0.66 (0.14)
	45–54	231	0.64 (0.13)
	55–64	51	0.58 (0.10)
Male	All ages	1,022	0.72 (0.15)
	18–24	228	0.75 (0.14)
	25–34	63	0.74 (0.15)
	35–44	436	0.74 (0.15)
	45–54	253	0.71 (0.15)
	55–64	42	0.65 (0.10)
Both genders	18–24	552	0.73 (0.14)
	25–34	217	0.71 (0.15)
	35–44	1,078	0.70 (0.15)
	45–54	484	0.68 (0.14)
	55–64	93	0.63 (0.11)
Variable		n	Mean (sd)
Marital status	Married/living together	1,686	0.68 (0.14)
	Single	618	0.73 (0.14)
	Widowed	51	0.62 (0.12)
	Divorced/separated	69	0.67 (0.14)
Educational level	Illiterate	132	0.58 (0.12)
	Low	1,141	0.67 (0.14)
	Middle	942	0.73 (0.14)
	High	206	0.71 (0.14)

sd, standard deviation.

*SF-6D values based on the Brazier tariff15.

Table 6.  Descriptive statistics of SF-6D values by chronic conditions.

Chronic condition	n	Mean (sd)
Musculoskeletal	1,158	0.64 (0.12)
Respiratory	680	0.66 (0.14)
Hypertension	554	0.65 (0.14)
Ophthalmological	428	0.65 (0.14)
Renal	381	0.63 (0.13)
Gastroenterological	305	0.64 (0.14)
Cardiovascular	249	0.56 (0.11)
Otorhinolaryngological	215	0.65 (0.14)
Other chronic diseases	209	0.61 (0.12)
Dermatological	143	0.66 (0.15)
Metabolic	130	0.61 (0.11)
Hepatic	84	0.66 (0.16)
Prostate	40	0.56 (0.11)
Neurological	32	0.62 (0.13)
Oncology	15	0.61 (0.11)
Sexually transmissible diseases	15	0.58 (0.14)
AIDS	13	0.62 (0.10)

sd, standard deviation; AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Table 7.  Cluster profiling.

Characteristic	Group 1	Group 2	Group 3
Number of individuals	930	494	1,000
Gender	Male	Female	Female
Mean age (sd) (years)	35.61 (10.97)	38.92 (10.23)	36.68 (11.52)
Age group (years)	18–44	55–64	45–64
Marital status	Divorced/separatedSingleMarried/living together	Widowed	Widowed
Educational level	High	Illiterate	Middle Low
Employment status	Non-manual workers Unemployed	Housewives	Retired Unskilled manual workers
Residence	Urban area	Rural area	Rural area Urban area
Chronic disease	Absence of chronic disease	Existence of at least a chronic disease	Existence of at least a chronic disease
Mean utility score* (sd)	0.84 (0.094)	0.55 (0.08)	0.64 (0.08)

sd, standard deviation.

*SF-6D values based on the Brazier tariff15.

Figure 1.  Distribution of SF-6D utility score across the three clusters. SF-6D values based on the Brazier tarif15.

Table 8.  Multinomial logit regression model.

Explanatory variable	Description	Ln(P2/P1)		Ln(P3/P1)		Ln(P3/P2)
		Exp (β)	p-value	Exp (β)	p-value	Exp (β)	p-value
Intercept		0.154	0.888	1.847	0.023^†	1.693	0.077
Gender	Male	0.534	<0.001*	0.556	<0.001*	1.041	0.737
Chronic disease	No chronic disease	0.556	<0.001*	0.522	<0.001*	0.938	0.669
Educational level	Illiterate	12.781	<0.001*	2.607	0.004*	0.204	<0.001*
	Low	3.315	<0.001*	1.570	0.013^†	0.473	0.013^†
	Middle	1.405	0.252	1.351	0.075^‡	0.961	0.896
Age group (years)	35–44	0.929	0.556	0.769	0.008*	0.828	0.117
	55–64	1.703	0.136	1.938	0.037^†	1.138	0.638
Employment status	Non-manual workers	0.483	<0.001*	0.926	0.479	1.918	<0.001*
Interactions	Aged more than 24 years and not married	0.151	0.003*	0.408	0.145	2.698	0.050^†
	Not retired and living in urban areas	2.388	0.306	0.506	0.187	0.212	0.043^†

* Significant at the 1% level.

^† Significant at the 5% level.

^‡ Significant at the 10% level.

Brazier J, Roberts J, Deverill M. The estimation of a preference-based measure of health from the SF-36. Journal of Health Economics 2002; 21: 271–292

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