Determining Health-Related Quality-of-Life Outcomes Using the SF-6D Preference-Based Measure in Patients Following Total Knee Arthroplasty

The SF-6D, a health-related quality-of-life measure, assigns value to patients’ perception of their health. We determined SF-6D values of 844 TKA patients, deduced clinical relevance of value changes using effect size, and compared these to clinical and functional improvements 6 weeks, 3 months, and 1 through 5 years post-operatively. The SF-6D significantly improved at all follow-ups after 6 weeks. The effect size indicated clinical relevance at every follow-up. The KSS improved at all follow-ups (+ 43, + 51, + 56, + 57, + 57 points), and LEAS scores improved at follow-ups after 6 weeks (+ 1 point at 3 months, + 2 points thereafter), correlating with SF-6D changes. Deducing utility scores facilitates cost analyses, allowing clinicians to deduce quality-adjusted life-years and economic impacts of treatments.