Mapping the neck disability index to SF-6D in patients with chronic neck pain

BACKGROUND: This study sought to statistically map the neck disability index (NDI) to the six-dimension health state short form (SF-6D) to estimate algorithms for use in economic analyses in patients with chronic neck pain (CNP). METHODS: The relationships between NDI and SF-6D scores were estimated by using data from a cohort of patients with chronic neck pain (n = 272). By using ordinary least squares (OLS), generalized linear modeling (GLM), censored least absolute deviations (CLAD) and Tobit regression, scores from all 10 items of the NDI instruments were univariately tested against SF-6D values and retained in a multivariate regression model, if statistically significant. The predictive ability of the model was assessed by mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE) and normalized RMSE. RESULTS: The mean age of the 272 CNP patients was 39.9 ± 12.3 years; 57.8 % of the CNP patients were female. An OLS regression equation that included recreation item of NDI was optimal, with a MAE of 0.04and 0.04 and an RMSE of 0.06and 0.05in the derivation set and validation set, respectively. Predicted utilities accurately represented the observed ones. CONCLUSIONS: We have provided algorithms for the estimation of health state utility values from the response of NDI. Future economic evaluations of the interventions for chronic neck pain could be informed by these algorithms.