OBJECTIVES: Epilepsy is the most common neurological condition affecting individuals of all ages. Short Form (SF) -6D is a preference-based measure of health developed to estimate utility values from the SF-36. This study estimated health utilities using data from a preference-based SF-36 for epilepsy patients in Nigeria.

METHODS: SF-36 responses from 69 individuals with epilepsy were transformed into utility values using the SF-6D algorithm. The excel programme, developed by Brazier and colleagues, was used to generate the SF-6D utility score estimated using a set of parametric preference weights obtained from a sample of epilepsy patients. The utility was determined using ordinal health state valuation.

RESULTS: Mean age of the participants was 39.6 years. The mean (Standard Deviation (SD)) annual episode seizure was 18.7(39). The mean (SD) ordinal health state valuation for epilepsy patients was 0.68 (0.11). The mean (SD) utility of female and male participants were 0.65 (0.13) and 0.69 (0.11), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study provide a quantitative estimate that suggest female epilepsy patients considered their health is poorer than male in Nigeria. Our findings will be helpful for researchers as an input in economic evaluations to facilitate resource allocation for patients with epilepsy to improve their health outcomes.