SUMMARYAim – To assess the relationship between mental health and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in the general population, and to map GHQ-12 as a screening test for population psychological distress to a generic health state measure (EQ-5D) in order to estimate health state values and allow deriving quality-adjusted life years. Methods – Relationship between mental health and HRQL was examined from the 2004 Canary Islands’ Health Survey. Participants were classified as probable psychiatric cases according to GHQ-12. HRQL was measured by the EQ-5D index. Multivariate lineal regression analysis was used to examine the association between mental health and HRQL adjusting by socio-demographic variables and comorbidities. A multivariate regression model was built from EQ-5D to estimate health states values using GHQ-12 as exposure. Results – EQ-5D index scores decreased as the GHQ-12 scores increased. Clinical and socio-demographic factors influenced HRQL without changing the overall trend for this negative relationship. The regression equation explained 43% of the variance. For estimation of utility scores, the model showed a high predictive capacity, with a mean forecast errors of 16%. Conclusions – HRQL progressively decreased when the probability of being a psychiatric case increased. Findings enable health state values to be derived from GHQ-12 scores for populations where utilities has not or cannot be measured directly.Declaration of Interest: Authors declare no conflicts of interest. This work was supported by the Quality Plan for the National Health Service (Spanish Ministry of Health and Social Policy).

Excess weight has a negative impact on HRQL, even for people without chronic diseases. A better understanding of the relationships between excess weight, its associated comorbidities, and HRQL may have important implications for the design and assessment of prevention and treatment strategies.

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Asymptomatic malaria cases, mixed infections and self-medication are the challenges that malaria control and elimination programs face. It is important to note that studies on subclinical malaria in the region are scarce. Endemic areas with dense populations and experiencing an increase in immigration levels are more vulnerable to malaria reemergence. Imported malaria cases impact the basic reproduction rate (Ro). Funding resources availability has impact on the sustainability of public health actions and the elimination of malaria in South America.