It was found that individual preferences over health are influenced by the duration of health states and their sequence .
However , although there is much variation across individual respondents , the assumptions tend to hold much better when valuations are aggregated across respondents , which is encouraging for economic evaluations that rely on using average ( mean or median ) values
The numbers of quality -adjusted life years ( QALYs ) gained are increasingly being used to represent the gains in individual utility from treatment .
This requires that the value of a health improvement to an individual is a simple product of gains in quality of life and length of life .
The article reports on a systematic review of the literature on 2 issues : whether the value of a state is affected by how long the state lasts , and by states that come before or after it .
Comparing Three Versions of the Time Tradeoff
This paper reports a comparative study of three formulations of the time-tradeoff ( TTO ) method of health valuation . One asks people to consider giving up time each day in exchange for better health . The second asks people to consider giving up time during a 12-month interval . The third is the more conventional TTO in which people are asked to contemplate a reduction in life expectancy . Question naires were sent to 4,087 adults selected at r and om from the population of Scotl and . Each respondent provided a de scription of his or her health , and was asked to value an improvement in that health , using all three formulations of the TTO . The daily TTO appeared to be an improvement on the conventional formulation , correlating more strongly with health , eliciting re sponses that appeared to be more precise , and obtaining information about the value of health from a far greater number of respondents . The performance of the annual TTO appeared to be only slightly inferior to that of the daily TTO . Key words : time tradeoff ; quality of life ; health valuation . ( Med Decis Making 1996;16:335 - 347
It was found that individual preferences over health are influenced by the duration of health states and their sequence .
However , although there is much variation across individual respondents , the assumptions tend to hold much better when valuations are aggregated across respondents , which is encouraging for economic evaluations that rely on using average ( mean or median ) values
The numbers of quality -adjusted life years ( QALYs ) gained are increasingly being used to represent the gains in individual utility from treatment .
This requires that the value of a health improvement to an individual is a simple product of gains in quality of life and length of life .
The article reports on a systematic review of the literature on 2 issues : whether the value of a state is affected by how long the state lasts , and by states that come before or after it .