Direct and indirect mapping of the 12-item Short Form Survey version 2 (SF-12v2) onto the EQ-5D-5L utility scores in general Thai population

Krittaphas Kangwanrattanakul

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: The SF-12v2 is widely used to measure health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in the general Thai population because it is brief and places a low burden on respondents. However, it does not provide utility scores required for economic analyses. The mapping approach is a solution to estimate the utility scores from the SF-12v2 response using several regression models. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a mapping algorithm to estimate EQ-5D-5L utility scores from the SF-12v2 items using a 2022 national dataset of 2000 Thai respondents. Four predictor sets incorporating SF-12v2 items/subscales and age as a covariate were investigated using direct and indirect mapping approaches. Direct mapping approaches included ordinary least squares, Tobit, censored least absolute deviations, generalized linear model (GLM), two-part models, adjusted limited dependent variable mixture model (ALDVMM), and beta mixture model, while multinomial logistic regression (MLOGIT) was investigated for indirect mapping. Model performance was evaluated using ten-fold cross-validated (post-CV) mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE). The ALDVMM-1 component with a predictor set comprising age and selected SF-12 items as categorical variables demonstrated the best predictive performance, yielding the lowest post-CV MAE and RMSE (0.0410 and 0.0625, respectively). However, MLOGIT showed poorer predictive performance. Therefore, the proposed ALDVMM-1 component-based mapping algorithm may facilitate the estimation of utility scores in studies where only the SF-12v2 was collected. Given that the mapping algorithm was developed from a predominantly healthy sample, it may be less reliable in populations with poorer health status, and further validation in populations with less healthy or clinical samples is warranted in future studies.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0351064

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0351064

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