A conceptual comparison of well-being measures used in the UK

There is significantpolitical interest in the UK in measuring subjective well- being (SWB) and the possibility of incorporating such measures into policy, including health policy. A number of different, yet related, measures of well-being and health are used across government departments. This includes four summary subjective (personal) well -being questions which ask about life satisfaction, happiness yesterday, anxiety yesterday and worthwhileness adopted by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) under its Measuring National Well-being Programme(referred to here as the ONS-4). They have also adopted the use of the short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (S- WEMWBS) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) which is a mental health screening measure that has been used in well-being measurement. In addition to the measures used within the ONS framework, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) currently rely upon the EQ-5D, a measure of health- related quality of life (HRQoL), in the assessment of medical technologies and public health interventions while social care guidance includes measures of capability and need, ICECAP-A and Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit