The cost of care and equipment for a person with a high-level spinal cord injury (Tetraplegia) is estimated as $50,000 to $280,000 AUD per annum dependent on level of injury. Important way governments and other health funders can work out the value of these health care expenditures to society is through utility values which take into account people's health preferences.

This paper provides the first SF-6D utility values for people with a spinal cord injury

A recent Australian study, "Validity, Responsiveness and Minimal Important Difference for the SF-6D Health Utility Scale in a Spinal Cord Injured population" published in Value in Health, provides the baseline utility values for people with a spinal cord injury compared to the general population as well as measures of the changes in utility with changes in health status. This paper presents evidence which support the use of the SF-6D as a useful and practical method for measuring the value of health care expenditures in this patient group. The study was co-authored by Bonsan Bonne Lee, Madeleine King, Judy Simpson, Mark Haran, Martin Stockler, Obaydullah Marial and Glenn Salkeld.

Says Dr. Lee, "The SF-6D utility measure can be calculated from the SF-36, a commonly available health-status measure used to assess the impact of disease and Disability. We determined that the content of the SF-6D was actually more useful in populations like people with a spinal cord injury who have significant physical Impairment than the underlying scale from which we calculated it (SF-36). We also found that the SF-6D can discriminate between different levels of disability and is responsive to clinically important changes in disability levels, which are key properties for usefulness in both population health and evaluation research."

Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 3,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.

ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.