Utility

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Utility (medicine)

Utility (pronounced: yoo-til-i-tee) in the context of medicine refers to the perceived value or worth of a particular health outcome. It is a key concept in health economics and is often used in cost-effectiveness analysis and decision analysis to compare the benefits of different treatment options.

Etymology

The term 'utility' originates from the Latin word 'utilitas', which means 'usefulness'. In the medical context, it was first used in the 18th century by Jeremy Bentham, a British philosopher and economist, who introduced the concept of 'utility' in his theory of utilitarianism.

Related Terms

  • Quality-adjusted life year (QALY): A measure of the value of health outcomes, which 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).
  • Disability-adjusted life year (DALY): A measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. It was developed in the 1990s as a way of comparing the overall health and life expectancy of different countries.
  • Cost-utility analysis (CUA): A form of economic analysis used to guide procurement decisions. The most common method is to use QALYs to quantify the benefit of a healthcare intervention.
  • Health-related quality of life (HRQoL): A multi-dimensional concept that includes domains related to physical, mental, emotional, and social functioning. It goes beyond direct measures of population health, life expectancy, and causes of death, and focuses on the impact health status has on quality of life.
  • Preference-based measures (PBMs): These are a type of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) that are used to obtain utility values. They are often used in cost-utility analyses to determine the cost-effectiveness of a particular treatment or intervention.

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