The health and activities limitation index in patients with acute myocardial infarction

Utility assessment is required to estimate quality-adjusted life years, but is often avoided due to the cumbersome nature of elicitation techniques. The Health Activities and Limitations Index (HALex) offers a method of utility assessment using existing values from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and a utility algorithm to derive preferences. The authors assessed the construct validity of the HALex by comparing derived values with directly assessed HALex utilities in patients post acute myocardial infarction (AMI). OLS regression was used to model the relationship between utilities and patient demographics, comorbidities, and treatment. The mean and median utility for patients (n = 160) was.57 (SD = 22) and.55 respectively, and was not statistically different from the mean [.57 (SD =.30)] and median (.58) for similar NHIS respondents (n = 46). Patients with a comorbidity index of three or less had mean utilities.13 higher than the mean utility for patients with an index of four or more. No relationship was found between patients' age, race, and income and their utilities. The HALex scoring algorithm is a promising means to obtain utilities, and provides a methodology to easily estimate utilities for patients, but is not without limitations.