BACKGROUND Quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) use preference-based measurements of health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) to provide an assessment of the overall burden of disease using a single number. PURPOSE This study estimated QALYs lost contributed by smoking and obesity for U.S. adults from 1993 to 2008. METHODS Population HRQOL data were from the 1993-2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Su...

BACKGROUND Facial composite tissue allotransplantation is a potential reconstructive option for severe facial disfigurement. The purpose of the present investigation was to use decision analysis modelling to ascertain the expected quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained with face transplantation (versus remaining in a disfigured state) in an effort to assist surgeons with the decision of whe...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Stroke is very common, but computed tomography (CT) scanning, an expensive and finite resource, is required to differentiate cerebral infarction, hemorrhage, and stroke mimics. We determined whether, and in what circumstances, CT is cost-effective in acute stroke. METHODS We developed a decision tree representing acute stroke care pathways populated with data from multi...

BACKGROUND Knee osteoarthritis is a leading global cause of health-related quality of life loss. The aim of this project was to quantify health losses arising from knee osteoarthritis in New Zealand (NZ) in terms of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) lost. METHODS The Osteoarthritis Policy Model (OAPol), a validated Monte Carlo computer simulation model, was used to estimate QALYs lost due t...

BACKGROUND Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is increasingly recognized as a major global health problem. Illicit injection drug use is an important risk factor for the rising hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence in IR Iran. OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to determine the long-term effectiveness (total quality adjusted life years (QALYs) gained) of methadone maintenance...

The concept of the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) provides a simple technical tool for summarising the impact a medical condition has on someone's life and the impact a health care intervention can have on that medical condition. In the former case, QALYs (and related concepts, such as disability-adjusted life years, DALYs) have been useful in producing summary statistics on the burden of di...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the long-term cost-effectiveness of transferring type 2 diabetes patients to an insulin detemir regimen after failure to achieve adequate control with oral antidiabetic agents (OADs) alone, or in combination with neutral protamine hagedorn (NPH) insulin, or with insulin glargine in Germany. METHODS A computer simulation model of diabetes was used to make long-term proje...

OBJECTIVE To assess the cost-effectiveness of intensive versus conventional therapy for 8 years as applied in the Steno-2 study in patients with type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A Markov model was developed to incorporate event and risk data from Steno-2 and account Danish-specific costs to project life expectancy, quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE), and ...

BACKGROUND After 11 years of follow-up, the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) reported a 29% reduction in prostate-cancer mortality among men who underwent screening for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. However, the extent to which harms to quality of life resulting from overdiagnosis and treatment counterbalance this benefit is uncertain. METHODS On th...