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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Med Care. 2014 Dec;52(12):1010–1016. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000000181

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Comparison of Trends in Health-Related Quality of Life Using Different Measures, Overall Population, Aged 18 and Over, MEPS Survey Years 2000–2010, Age-Adjusted to the 2010 Population by 10-Year Age Group

Notes: EQ-5D and VAS trends are truncated at 2003 because they were discontinued from the MEPS in 2004. Trends are shown for those with complete data on HALex, SSI, and SF-6D. Those missing on EQ-5D and VAS from 2000–2003 are not omitted, however trends are almost identical when these additional respondents are omitted (not shown).

The notable drop in SF-6D scores in 2003 was at least partially due to the adoption of the new SF-12 questionnaire in that year and the reassignment of responses to role model questions to try to match to the dichotomous response categories in the earlier SF-12 version. All those responding in version 2 that they had any problems (a little of the time, some of the time, most of the time, or all of the time) were assigned as having problems (to match ‘yes’ in version 1), resulting in a higher prevalence of role performance problems in 2003 and beyond. Survey Based Symptom/Impairment scores did not use the role performance questions. They did use other SF-12 questions that changed in 2003 (depressive and anxious symptoms and energy). Adjustments are discussed in the Appendix (Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/MLR/A757).