Pathway framework 2 of 8
How to get quality-adjusted life years by valuing health states with people's preferences
Do you want to learn how to measure the health a treatment gives? You take patients' answers to a health questionnaire and turn them into QALYs.
4 steps
This framework organises the concepts covered at each step of the pathway on the Knowledge Map.
Concepts from other branches of the Knowledge Tree that this pathway builds on.
Step 1
What a study measures about how patients feel, function and survive, and who does the reporting.
17 concepts
Why start here
Every utility, QALY or money value starts from an outcome someone measured, so the pathway begins with what is measured and who reports the outcome.
Step 2
How a health state gets a number on a scale from dead to full health, either asked of people directly or read from a value set.
31 concepts
Why this comes next
QALYs need a quality weight for each health state, so the outcomes measured in the first step are now turned into utilities.
Step 3
Combining length of life with its quality in one number, counted as QALYs gained or DALYs averted.
13 concepts
Why this comes next
With a utility for each health state, time spent in each state can now be weighted and added up into one measure of health.
Step 4
Asking people what they would pay or which option they would choose, so outcomes can be valued in money or traded against each other.
25 concepts
Why this comes next
Some decisions need outcomes valued in money, or need to know which features of care people value, and QALYs alone cannot show either.
Branches that take these methods further.