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Health Economics Wiki
Outcome Measuresevidence: highv1.0.0

Quality Adjusted Life Year

A measure of disease burden that combines length of life and quality of life into a single metric.

Definition

A QALY is a generic measure of disease burden that accounts for both the quantity and quality of life generated by a healthcare intervention. One QALY equates to one year in perfect health. A year in a health state with a utility weight of 0.5 is worth 0.5 QALYs. QALYs are the standard outcome measure used in cost-effectiveness analysis by health technology assessment bodies such as NICE.

Canonical Identity

Version
1.0.0
Published
4/26/2026
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