Page 61 - Htain Manual

DALYs combine mortality with morbidity into one single numerical unit, an exercise that

involves trade-offs between the quantity and quality of health.

Life Years Gained (LYG)
Traditionally, the impact of health care has been measured in terms of its effect on

mortality, for e.g. deaths averted. A potential drawback of using deaths averted to measure

health effects is that it does not take into account the age parameter. LYG is a modified
mortality measure where the remaining life expectancy of the individual in question is also

taken into account. This means that the life remaining will get age adjusted depending on the

life expectancy of the individual. Life years are calculated as the remaining life expectancy at

the point of each averted death. The life expectancies are taken from life tables specific to

the region and which have been age standardized.

Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYS)

In QALYs, premature mortality is combined with morbidity by assigning a quality
weight to each health state such that value 0 represents death, while value 1 represents full

health. The number of QALYs for a health profile is found by multiplying the health-related

quality of life score (HRQoL) of the health state, with the duration of the health state.

Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYS)
Two important principles are underlying the DALY concept, first of which is that the

burden calculated for like health outcomes should be the same, and second is the restriction

of characteristics, not directly related to health, to age and gender. Which means that
characteristics like income, education, ethnicity, etc. should not be taken into account. These

propositions represent intentions of creating a methodology that treat people as equal as

possible.

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