A preference-based measure of health: the VR-6D derived from the veterans RAND 12-Item Health Survey

The Veterans RAND 12-Item Health Survey (VR-12) is currently the major endpoint used in the Medicare managed care outcomes measure in the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS^®), referred to as the Health Outcomes Survey (HOS). The purpose of this study is to adapt the Brazier SF-6D utility measure to the VR-12 to generate a single utility index.

We used the HOS cohorts 2 and 3 for SF-36 data and 9 for VR-12 data. We calculated SF-6D scores from the SF-36 using the algorithms developed by Brazier and colleagues. The values of the Brazier SF-6D were used to estimate utility scores from the VR-12 using a mapping approach based on a 2-stage mapping procedure, named as VR-6D.

The VR-6D derived from the VR-12 has similar distributional properties as the SF-6D. The change in VR-6D showed significant variations across disease groups with different levels of morbidity and mortality.

This study produced a utility measure for the VR-12 that is comparable to the SF-6D and responsive to change. The VR-6D can be used in evaluations of health care plans and cost-effectiveness analysis to compare the health gains that health care interventions can achieve.