The Health Utilities Index (HUI): concepts, measurement properties and applications.

TLDR

The Health Utilities Index (HUI) comprises HUI2 and HUI3 instruments that offer compact, comprehensive frameworks for describing health status, with population norm data from large surveys. This review examines the HUI multi‑attribute health‑status classification systems and their single‑ and multi‑attribute utility scoring methods. Multi‑attribute utility functions enable calculation of single‑summary health‑related quality of life scores for each health state defined by the HUI classification systems. HUI is widely used in clinical studies worldwide, offering comprehensive, reliable, responsive, and valid measures of health status and HRQL that support cost‑utility analyses and enable comparison of disease and treatment outcomes across local, national, and international levels.

Abstract

This is a review of the Health Utilities Index (HUI) multi-attribute health-status classification systems, and single- and multi-attribute utility scoring systems. HUI refers to both HUI Mark 2 (HUI2) and HUI Mark 3 (HUI3) instruments. The classification systems provide compact but comprehensive frameworks within which to describe health status. The multi-attribute utility functions provide all the information required to calculate single-summary scores of health-related quality of life (HRQL) for each health state defined by the classification systems. The use of HUI in clinical studies for a wide variety of conditions in a large number of countries is illustrated. HUI provides comprehensive, reliable, responsive and valid measures of health status and HRQL for subjects in clinical studies. Utility scores of overall HRQL for patients are also used in cost-utility and cost-effectiveness analyses. Population norm data are available from numerous large general population surveys. The widespread use of HUI facilitates the interpretation of results and permits comparisons of disease and treatment outcomes, and comparisons of long-term sequelae at the local, national and international levels.