QALY
QALY
QALY (pronounced: KWAH-lee), or Quality-Adjusted Life Year, is a measure used in health economics to assess the value of medical interventions. The concept of QALY takes into account both the quantity and quality of life generated by healthcare interventions. It is calculated by estimating the years of life remaining for a patient following a particular treatment or intervention and weighting each year with a quality-of-life score (on a 0 to 1 scale). It is often used in cost-utility analysis to calculate the ratio of cost to QALYs gained from a particular treatment.
Etymology
The term QALY is an acronym for Quality-Adjusted Life Year. The concept was first introduced in the 1970s by decision theorists and health economists in the United States who were looking for a way to quantify the effectiveness of health interventions.
Related Terms
- DALY: Disability-Adjusted Life Year, a measure that quantifies the burden of disease. It is the sum of years of potential life lost due to premature mortality and the years of productive life lost due to disability.
- Cost-utility analysis: A form of economic analysis used to guide procurement decisions. The most common method is to use QALYs to quantify the benefit of a health care intervention.
- Health economics: A branch of economics concerned with issues related to the production and consumption of health and health care.
- Healthcare intervention: An act performed for, with or on behalf of a person or population whose purpose is to assess, improve, maintain, promote or modify health, functioning or health conditions.
See Also
- Cost-effectiveness analysis
- Health-related quality of life
- Life expectancy
- Morbidity rate
- Mortality rate
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on QALY
- Wikipedia's article - QALY
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