A Comparison of the Validity of Two Preference-Based Health Indexes as Measures of Postoperative Recovery

Cost-effectiveness analyses of surgical interventions require that utilities adequately capture the construct of postoperative recovery, in order to accurately calculate quality-adjusted life years. The SF-6D, a preference-based health index used to generate utilities, has been previously validated for postoperative recovery, but the EQ-5D is easier to administer and more commonly used, but has not yet been validated. Therefore the objective of this study is to compare the validity of the SF-6D and EQ-5D as measures of postoperative recovery.