RATIONALE:
The use of generic measures of health-related quality of life enables cost effectiveness comparisons of different health care interventions to be made. Nevertheless, there exists a concern that generic instruments may be insufficiently sensitive to detect the differences or changes in outcome identified by condition-specific instruments. This paper compares the psychometric properties of the EQ-5D generic instrument with a widely used specific measure of distress, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).