ArticlePharmacoEconomics2006
QALYs: are they helpful to decision makers?
Article in PharmacoEconomics, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Measuring health-related quality of life in drug clinical trials: is it given due importance?Pharmacy world & science : PWS · 2008Pooled it
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- Differences in EQ-5D-3L health state valuations among patients with musculoskeletal diseases, health care professionals and healthy volunteers.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2015Article
- Validation of the underlying assumptions of the quality-adjusted life-years outcome: results from the ECHOUTCOME European project.PharmacoEconomics · 2015Article
- Assessment of the cost-effectiveness and clinical outcomes of a fourth-generation synchronous telehealth program for the management of chronic cardiovascular disease.Journal of medical Internet research · 2014Article
- Current challenges in health economic modeling of cancer therapies: a research inquiry.American health & drug benefits · 2014Review
- Theory of constraints for publicly funded health systems.Health care management science · 2013Article
- Cost-effectiveness modelling of sequential biologic strategies for the treatment of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis in Finland.The open rheumatology journal · 2012Article
- Modelling cost-effectiveness of biologic treatments based on disease activity scores for the management of rheumatoid arthritis in Spain.International journal of inflammation · 2011Article
- Regulatory benefit-risk assessment and comparative effectiveness research: strangers, bedfellows or strange bedfellows?PharmacoEconomics · 2010Article
- Evaluation of benefit-risk.PharmacoEconomics · 2010Article
- Cost-effectiveness modeling of abatacept versus other biologic agents in DMARDS and anti-TNF inadequate responders for the management of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2009Article
- Methods of economic evaluation for the German statutory healthcare system.PharmacoEconomics · 2009Article
- Cost-effectiveness sequential modeling of ranibizumab versus usual care in age-related macular degeneration.Graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology = Albrecht von Graefes Archiv fur klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie · 2008Article
- Users' guide to the orthopaedic literature: what is a cost-effectiveness analysis?Indian journal of orthopaedics · 2008Article
- A comparison of the superficial inferior epigastric artery flap and deep inferior epigastric perforator flap in postmastectomy reconstruction: A cost-effectiveness analysis.The Canadian journal of plastic surgery = Journal canadien de chirurgie plastique · 2008Article
- The use of QALY weights for QALY calculations: a review of industry submissions requesting listing on the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme 2002-4.PharmacoEconomics · 2008Article
- Lessons from trial-based cost-effectiveness analyses of mental health interventions: why uncertainty about the outcome, estimate and willingness to pay matters.PharmacoEconomics · 2007Article
- Should we abandon QALYs as a resource allocation tool?PharmacoEconomics · 2006Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The QALY is the product of life expectancy (estimated in years) and its quality over that time (estimated in utilities or QOL units). It theoretically enables direct comparison of the costs of obtaining different health outcomes through cost utility analysis (CUA). In this review, we argue that, at present, the problems related to the use of utilities preclude the use of cost per QALY as a major determinant of policy decisions on the acquisition and use of health technologies. Those who use CUA can be divided into (i) those who inform the process of decision making through CUA and (ii) those who make the decisions. The former have no direct budgetary responsibility for the decisions that are taken, while the decision makers must pay for those decisions from their budgets. Use of CUA rests on the assumption that all QALYs are of equivalent value in the eyes of society. However, the value accorded to them varies with circumstances. The utilities or QOL indices required to compute QALYs can be measured in different ways, which give different answers, and have been shown to be unreliable. Thus, the QALY is not sufficiently accurate or reliable to be used by decision makers as a basis for comparison of the costs of different technologies. Until the theoretical and practical problems of determining health preferences are resolved and the methods of their measurement are standardised, it is necessary to estimate the cost effectiveness of health interventions by relating their cost to their primary health outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
17002477What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.