title: Multiattribute utility function for a comprehensive health status classification system. Health Utilities Index Mark 2.
abstract: The Health Utilities Index Mark 2 (HUI:2) is a generic multiattribute, preference-based system for assessing health-related quality of life. Health Utilities Index Mark 2 consists of two components: a seven-attribute health status classification system and a scoring formula. The seven attributes are sensation, mobility, emotion, cognition, self-care, pain, and fertility. A random sample of general population parents were interviewed to determine cardinal preferences for the health states in the system. The health states were defined as lasting for a 60-year lifetime, starting at age 10. Values were measured using visual analogue scaling. Utilities were measured using a standard gamble technique. A scoring formula is provided, based on a multiplicative multiattribute utility function from the responses of 194 subjects. The utility scores are death-anchored (death = 0.0) and form an interval scale. Health Utilities Index Mark 2 and its utility scores can be useful to other researchers in a wide variety of settings who wish to document health status and assign preference scores.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: G W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Torrance
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Feeny
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Furlong
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Barr
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D018570:Risk Assessment