Musculoskeletal health and capability wellbeing: Associations between the HAQ-DI, ICECAP-A and ICECAP-O measures in a population survey

The capability approach has received increasing attention in wellbeing measurement in the past years, but it has still remained an underexplored area in musculoskeletal (MSK) health. We aimed to explore the capability wellbeing in relation to MSK health, by measuring the associations between the Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ-DI) physical functioning and the ICECAP-A and ICECAP-O capability wellbeing measures. A cross-sectional survey was performed in 2019 on a representative sample of the Hungarian general adult population. Capability wellbeing was measured by the ICECAP-A (age-group 18–64) and ICECAP-O (age group 65+) questionnaires. MSK health was defined by the HAQ-DI, the mobility domain of the EQ-5D-3L/-5L health status measures, self-reported walking problems and MSK diagnosis (neck/back/low back defects, hip/knee arthrosis, osteoporosis). Altogether 2021 individuals (female: 50.1%) participated in the survey with mean (SD) age of 48.7 (17.9) years and HAQ-DI of 0.138 (0.390). ICECAP-A (N = 1568, 77.6%) and ICECAP-O (N = 453, 22.4%) scores were on average (SD) 0.894 (0.126) and 0.828 (0.150), respectively. Spearman correlations between the HAQ-DI and ICECAP-A/-O index scores were moderate (r = −0.303 and −0.496; p