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 .
A cost utility analysis of treatment options for gallstone disease: methodological issues and results.
The techniques of cost utility analysis ( CUA ) were used to evaluate the treatment of gallstone disease by open and laparoscopic cholecystectomy and by extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy ( ESWL ) .  The application of the techniques in this context raised three method ological questions which are not satisfactorily resolved in the literature . The first is whether an ex ante or ex post perspective is best adopted for the measurement of quality of life ( QoL ) . The second is the method for converting a short term deterioration in QoL followed by full health into QALYs and the reliability of the methods available . The third is the issue of indirect costs which , in the context of a temporary disease state , can not be easily avoided . The economic evaluation found laparoscopic cholecystectomy to be generally superior than the competitor technologies ( entailing lower costs and better outcomes ) . However , the results were sensitive to assumptions about the perspective for measuring benefits and the inclusion of indirect costs
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 .