Can Social Care Needs and Wellbeing be Explained by the EQ-5D? Analysis of the Health Survey for England

Abstract

Aim: The recent shift to an integrated approach to health and social care aims to provide cohesive support to those who are in need of care, but raises a challenge for resource-allocation decision-making, in particular for comparison of diverse benefits from different types of care across the two sectors. This study aims to investigate the relationship of social care needs and wellbeing with a generic health status, measure using multivariate regression. Methods: We empirically compared responses to health and wellbeing measures and social care needs from a cross-sectional dataset of the general population (the Health Survey for England). Multivariate regression analyses were conducted to examine whether social care needs measured by the Barthel Index (BI) can be explained by health status as captured by the EQ-5D and the wellbeing measures WEMWBS and GHQ-12. Results: Our study found that poor overall scores for EQ-VAS, EQ-5D Index, GHQ-12 and WEMWBS indicated a need for social care. Investigation of the dimensions found that the EQ-5D dimensions self-care and pain/discomfort were statistically significantly associated with the need for social care. None of the GHQ-12 dimensions and two dimensions from WEMWBS, ‘been feeling useful’ and ‘had energy to spare,’ were statistically significantly associated with the BI. Conclusions: The results show that the need for social care, which is dependent on the ability to perform personal day-to-day activities, is more closely related to the EQ-5D dimensions than wellbeing measures WEMWBS and GHQ-12.