Utilities represent the subjective preferences of individuals.
As measures, utility scores provide quantitative estimates of individual preferences. In the context of health care decision making, utilites reflect individual preferences for particular health states. Although many descriptive instruments include items about overall life satisfaction, none is primarily concerned with the quantification of individual preferences regarding health status. Utilities serve this function as summary measures of individual preferences. Thus, utilities capture how individuals value a specified multi-dimensional health state in a single numerical score.