OBJECTIVE to examine the relationship between combined lifestyle behaviours and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) in a general population. METHODS a population-based study was conducted in 13,358 men and women who participated in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC)-Norfolk (baseline 1993-97). A score of 1 was given to each of non-smoking, physically not inactive, moder...

BACKGROUND Estimated medical costs ("T") and QALYs ("Q") associated with smoking are frequently used in cost-utility analyses of tobacco control interventions. The goal of this study was to understand how researchers have addressed the methodological challenges involved in estimating these parameters. METHODS Data were collected as part of a systematic review of tobacco modeling studies. We s...

The aim of our study was to relate four modifiable lifestyle factors (smoking status, body mass index, physical activity and diet) to health expectancy, using quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) in a prospective cohort study. Data of the prospective EPIC-NL study were used, including 33,066 healthy men and women aged 20-70 years at baseline (1993-7), followed until 31-12-2007 for occurrence of ...

BACKGROUND Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend routine HIV counseling, testing, and referral (HIVCTR) in settings with at least a 1 percent prevalence of HIV, roughly 280,000 Americans are unaware of their human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The effect of expanded screening for HIV is unknown in the era of effective antiretroviral therapy. METHODS...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The cost-effectiveness of dabigatran for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation and prior stroke or transient ischemic attack has not been directly assessed. METHODS A Markov decision model was constructed using data from the Randomized Evaluation of Long-Term Therapy (RE-LY) trial, other trials of warfarin therapy for atrial fibrillation, and the publis...

The QALY (quality-adjusted life years) attempts to incorporate the dimension of quality of life into the evaluation by adjusting life years by a quality factor. In practice, this is based on discussing with people the progression of a number of hypothetical illnesses and their ensuing side effects. From this information, the person assesses how each state of health described compares with a the...

Background The use of quality-adjusted life years (QALY) as an outcome measure of economic evaluations is well-established in the literature. A measure of dental utility analogous to QALY, the quality-adjusted tooth years (QATY), had been initiated but only met with limited success, partly because of its inability to compare across a variety of dental interventions. This study aimed to develop ...

The Health Utilities Index (HUI) system is a generic, preference-based measure of health status intended for use in clinical outcomes measurement, in health surveys, in program planning and resource allocation. The utility scores provide a summary index of health-related quality of life on a zero to 1.0 scale; they may be used in cost-utility analyses to calculate quality-adjusted life years an...

IMPORTANCE Future funding for new treatments in venous thromboembolism will be guided by cost-utility analyses. There is little available information on the utility of acute venous thromboembolism, limiting the validity of economic analyses. OBJECTIVE To measure the quality of life in the health states relating to thromboembolism cost-utility analyses. DESIGN A prospective cohort study. S...

BACKGROUND Treatment options for end-stage heart failure include inotrope-dependent medical therapy, orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT), left ventricular assist device (LVAD) as destination therapy or bridge to transplant. METHODS AND RESULTS We developed a state-transition model to simulate 4 treatment options and associated morbidity and mortality. Transition probabilities, costs, and u...