Quality of life--economic aspects.

The interest for quality of life assessments in health care has grown during recent years. From the economist's point of view, quality of life is an appropriate outcome measure in economic assessments of health care as a tool in priority settings. In quality adjusted life-years (QALYs) improvements in the length of life and in its quality are amalgamated into one single index. Different types of medical interventions can be compared by calculations of costs per gained QALY. Unsolved problems still remain with QALYs but with scarce resources within the health care sector measures like QALYs provide a powerful guidance in priority settings.