Editorial
The measurement of health related quality of life
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
When
the British Cardiac Society met in York in 1986, professor of economics
Alan Williams addressed us on quality of life (QoL) measurements. He
specifically dealt with their use to calculate the relative cost of
gaining QALYs (quality adjusted life years) by interventions for
angina.1 QALYs were to help health planners make more
objective assessments of how our treatments performed in terms of value
for money. Such analyses would enable us to make rational choices in
deciding which treatment is the most cost effective for a given
condition and, taken a step further, on which diseases and on which
treatments money is best spent. By Williams's calculations, the number
of QALYs gained by interventions to relieve angina were modest, ranging
from 0.5 for single vessel disease to 3.5 QALYs for a patient with left
main stem stenosis with severe angina.1 It was evident
that the scale he used was relatively insensitive to the
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