OBJECTIVES

: To provide age- and sex-specific health state utilities (HSUs) and examine their associations with overweight/ obesity in the Ghanaian population.

METHODS

: Data from the World Health Organization’s 2008 Study of Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) was used. HSUs were derived, first by mapping EQ-5D-3L profiles to responses from the health state descriptions in SAGE. The UK population norms were applied in the baseline scenario to calculate HSUs. Multilevel linear regressions that utilize the identity link were used to evaluate associations between HSUs and overweight/ obesity.

RESULTS

: Responses from 3,946 adults aged 18-79 years were analysed. The mean (95 % confidence interval) HSU was 0.661 (95% CI: 0.652, 0.670) for the analytical sample, 0.690 (95% CI: 0.679, 0.702) for men and 0.626 (95% CI: 0.612, 0.640) for women. Mean HSU was significantly higher for overweight respondents compared to those with normal BMI. There was statistically significant negative association between HSUs and being a woman (-0.048; 95% CI: -0.066, -0.029) compared to being a man, women with class I obesity (-0.047; 95% CI: -0.091, -0.002) compared to women with normal BMI, ages 50-79 years compared to 18-29 years and all obesity-related medical conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

: The study provides HSUs by sex and age in the Ghanaian population. Mean HSU was significantly higher in overweight respondents in the population; and class I obesity (BMI= 30.00 to ≤ 35.00kg/m) was negatively associated with HSUs in women.