Estimating Utility Values for Health States of Nigerian Individuals with Stroke or Epilepsy Using the SF-36: A Brief Report on the Results of a Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Background. Stroke and epilepsy are the most common neurologic conditions affecting individuals. The Short Form Six-Dimension Health Index (SF-6D) is a preference-based measure of health developed to estimate utility values from the SF-36. This study estimated utility values for health states of Nigerian individuals with stroke or epilepsy using the SF-36. Methods. SF-36 responses from 125 and 69 individuals with stroke and persons with epilepsy, respectively, were transformed into health state utility values using the SF-6D algorithm. The Excel program developed by Brazier and colleagues was used to generate the SF-6D utility score estimated using a set of parametric preference weights. The health state utility values were determined using ordinal health state and standard gamble valuation techniques. Results. Mean ( s) ages of the stroke and epilepsy participants were 63.1 (11) and 39.6 (16) y, respectively. The mean ( s) utility scores for stroke and epilepsy were 0.52 (0.10) and 0.65 (0.1) for standard gamble and 0.48 (0.13) and 0.68 (0.11), respectively, using the ordinal health state paradigm. The mean ( s) utility of stroke (female = 0.46 [0.15]; male = 0.50 [0.12]) and epilepsy (female = 0.65 [0.13], male = 0.69 [0.11]) participants were reported. The mean ( s) annual episodes of seizure was 18.7 (39). Conclusions. To our knowledge, this is the first study to suggest that females with stroke and those with epilepsy considered their health to be poorer than that of their male counterparts. The significance of our findings is that they may be helpful for researchers, policy makers, and clinicians by providing input into economic evaluations to facilitate resource allocation for stroke survivors and people living with epilepsy to improve their health outcomes and reduce the huge burden associated with the conditions. Highlight We estimated a health state utility value for stroke and epilepsy to aid researchers and public health policy makers in conducting health economic analysis and outcomes research.