• A measure of disease burden including both:
– Quality and
– Quantity of life lived
• Used mainly for assessing the value for money of a medical intervention i.e. cost – effective analysis for comparing different interventions
• Based on the number of QUALYs gained by the intervention
• Each year in perfect health = 1.0
• Death = 0.0
• 1 QUALY = one year of life X one utility value = one year of life lived in perfect health
• Half a year lived in perfect health is equivalent to 0.5 QUALY = 1 year X 0.5 utility value
For more details refer to the reference no. 1
Reference:
1. Franco Sassi. Calculating QALYs, comparing QALY and DALY calculations, Health Policy Plan (2006) 21 (5): 402-408
2. Park’s Textbook of Preventive & Social Medicine; ed. 23rd
HALE (Health – Adjusted Life Expectancy): http://www.ihatepsm.com/blog/hale-health-%E2%80%93-adjusted-life-expectancy
Sullivan’s index’ or ‘Disability Free Life Expectancy’ or “Active Life Expectancy” http://www.ihatepsm.com/blog/%E2%80%98sullivan%E2%80%99s-index%E2%80%99-...
QALY (Quality – adjusted life years): http://www.ihatepsm.com/blog/qualy-quality-%E2%80%93-adjusted-life-years
DALY (Disability Adjusted Life Years): http://www.ihatepsm.com/blog/disability-adjusted-life-years-daly
Differences between QUALY and DALY: http://www.ihatepsm.com/blog/differences-between-qualy-and-daly
PQLI (Physical Quality of Life Index): http://www.ihatepsm.com/blog/physical-quality-life-index-pqli
HDI (Human Development Index): http://www.ihatepsm.com/blog/human-development-index-hdi