I have seen EQ-5D ‘language’ using 5 numbers (e.g. 12321 or 43251). What does this mean?

The descriptive system section of the EQ-5D questionnaire produces a 5-digit health state profile that represents the level of reported problems on each of the five dimensions of health, e.g. EQ-5D-5L health state 11313 represents a patient who indicates moderate problems on the usual activities and anxiety/depression dimensions and no problems on the remaining dimensions. Please note that this is just a ‘shorthand’ way of describing an EQ-5D health state; the numbers are simply code for the level in each dimension and have no arithmetic properties whatsoever. Therefore, they should not, for example, be added to give an overall score.

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