Changes in Health Utility of Patients after Cardiac Surgery

Abstract

Background: Health utility, which can be assessed by several preference-based utility measures, is an important measure in the analysis of cost effectiveness in health care. We aimed to examine differences in health utility by age following recovery phase II cardiac rehabilitation (CR). Methods: This longitudinal observational study assessed 62 consecutive cardiac surgery patients who were divided into a middle-aged group (<65 years, n=33) and older-age group (≥ 65 years, n=29). Health utility assessed by mean Short Form-6D (SF-6D) utility score was measured at 1 and 3 months after cardiac surgery and compared. Results: The mean SF-6D utility scores increased significantly from 1 to 3 months in both the middle-aged group (0.57 ± 0.07 to 0.64 ± 0.09, P<0.001) and the older-aged group (0.59 ± 0.08 to 0.67 ± 0.12, P<0.001). However, no significant period (from 1 to 3 months) by group interactions (middle-aged and older-aged groups) (mean SF-6D utility scores: F [1/60] 0.10, P=0.75) was detected. Conclusion: Following phase II CR, health utility showed an increase in both middle-aged and older-aged cardiac surgery Japanese patients.