An Examination of Health-Utilities in People with Dysvascular Lower Extremity Amputation

Research Objectives To examine health utility scores in people with dysvascular lower extremity amputation (LEA). Design Cross-sectional telephone survey. Setting Community. Participants A total of 231 community-dwelling adults with dysvascular LEA participated in the study. Participants were mostly male (80.5%), were an average 63.4 years of age, and were an average 3.36 years post-amputation. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures The main outcome measures included the Special Interest Group in Amputee Medicine (SIGAM), the Dysvascular Conditions Scale (DCS), and 6D health utility scores derived from the Short Form-36 (SF-36). Results The mean SF-6D health utility score was 0.689 (0.127) for the sample. An association was detected between the 6D health utility score and SIGAM grade (p< 0.001). Health utility was positively associated with age (r = 0.137, p=0.037) and months post-amputation (r = 0.141, p = 0.032), and negatively associated with DCS severity (r =-0.526, p< 0.001). The 6D health utility scores were lower for participants in the DCS high-impact groups for the following conditions: diabetes mellitus, phantom limb pain, musculoskeletal pain, back pain, psychological distress, depression, vision problems, and other pain. Conclusions The results of this study provides a list of health utility scores for the community-dwelling dysvascular LEA population; providing insight on how these scores are influenced by mobility and health status. 6D health utility scores can serve to inform policy and resource allocation for the LEA population. Author(s) Disclosures The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.