Health outcomes in economic evaluation: the QALY and utilities

The quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is routinely used as a summary measure of health outcome for economic evaluation, which incorporates the impact on both the quantity and quality of life. Key studies relating to the QALY and utility measurement are the sources of data. Areas of agreement include the need for a standard measure of health outcome to enable comparisons across different disease areas and populations, and the methods used for valuing health states in utility measurement. Areas of controversy include the limitation of the QALY approach in terms of the health benefits it can capture, its blindness towards equity concerns, the underlying theoretical assumptions and the most appropriate generic…