Spencer, A., Rivero-Arias, O., Wong, R. orcid.org/0000-0002-4536-4794 et al. (6 more authors) (2022) The QALY at 50 : one story many voices. Social Science & Medicine, 296. 114653. ISSN 0277-9536
Abstract
Research on quality adjusted life year (QALY) has been underway for just over 50 years, which seems like a suitable milestone to review its history. The purpose of this study is to provide a historical overview of why the QALY was developed, the key theoretical work undertaken by Torrance, Bush and Fanshel and how two seminal papers shaped its subsequent development.
Moving the QALY forward – there are several historical and reflective exercises. The historical interplay between politics, policy and the challenges facing the NHS in formulating the QALY concept in the UK has been explored in some depth already, whilst the conceptualisation and development of the methodological framework is relatively underexplored. We address this gap by viewing the QALY through the lens of the methodological debates, reflecting upon two key papers underpinning the QALY methodology and how these methods have been developed over time. In part the changes in technology e.g. Google Scholar, and the availability of tools to search for early uses of the QALY allow us to better understand the historical context in which the theoretical development of the QALY has taken place.
Here we celebrate two seminal papers that shaped early QALY development. The first section provides a history of these papers, summaries their contributions and explores the uptake of these papers over time. The second section reviews the methodological debates that have surrounded the QALY over the last 50 years and looks at how the QALY has moved to address these challenges. The third section presents the voices of diverse commentators representing the field of health economics who have contributed to the subsequent development of the QALY in both theoretical and empirical capacities and captures their thoughts about future research and policy use of QALYS.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Social Science & Medicine. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | History of economic thought; Health outcomes; Cost-effectiveness analysis; Quality adjusted life years (QALY) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Economics (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 Jan 2022 09:48 |
Last Modified: | 11 Dec 2022 01:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114653 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:182073 |
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Filename: The QALY at 50_CORRECT_V3_final_accepted.pdf
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0