%0 Journal Article
%T On the ability of the SF-6D to capture the consequences of chronic illnesses on subjective well-being: Evidence from France.
%A Tessier P
%A Wolff FC
%J Soc Sci Med
%V 354
%N 0
%D 2024 Aug 2
%M 38981399
%F 5.379
%R 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117086
%X Using cross-sectional data from a representative sample of the French population (the 2008 Disability Health survey), this paper examines whether the SF-6D, a widely used preference-based measure of health-related quality of life in economic evaluations, fully captures the variation in subjective well-being (SWB) due to chronic illnesses. We conduct a mediation analysis to disentangle the direct and indirect, through the SF-6D, effects of various chronic conditions on SWB (happiness). Our results show that the SF-6D reflects changes in happiness due to most illnesses except mental illness. Changes in SWB mediated by the SF-6D account for 74% of the total effect. The variation unexplained by the SF-6D is significant and increases substantially in the presence of multimorbidity when a chronic illness is combined with anxiety or depression. Overall, our results suggest that the SF-6D incompletely captures the subjective experience of chronically ill patients, especially those with comorbid conditions.