A Statistical Examination of the Health Utility Index-Mark III as a Summary Measure of Health Status for a General Population Health Survey

The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of the Health Utility Index-Mark III (HUI-Mark III) to provide a summary measure of the physical, mental and social dimensions of health assessed in the 1994/5 National Population Health Survey (NPHS). The sample consisted of 838 (402 male, 436 female) randomly selected residents of Prince George, British Columbia. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using the measures of physical, psychological and social health included in the NPHS. The HUI-Mark III scores were then regressed on to the factors in an attempt to determine the proportion of variance in factor scores accounted for by the HUI-Mark III. The results suggest that the HUI-Mark III is primarily a measure of physical impairment that does not adequately represent the physical, mental and social dimensions of health as measured in the NPHS.