Cost-utility analysis (CUA) is widely used for health care decision-maker. However，to ensure the CUA results reliable, an effective measurement of health utility value is needed, even though the measuring process is always complicated and time-consuming. At present, the EuroQol 5 Dimensions Questionnaire (EQ-5D) and the six-dimensional health state classification system (SF-6D) are two of most commonly used utility measures. This research aims to introduce SF-6D systematically and outlines its latest studies and applications. Compared with EQ-5D, SF-6D showed better performance when measuring health state utilities in in various populations and patient groups. Moreover, some scholars estimated the SF-6D utility values indirectly by mapping the SF-36 results reported in the literature. It was proved that the utility value can be used in the study of CUA. Applying this mapping method would sufficiently using existing SF-36 evidence in China for economic evaluation, thus greatly save the cost of CUA research. However, further research needs to verify that this transformation model is suitable for Chinese.