Center for Health Outcomes Research, United BioSource Corporation, 7101 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res. 2012 Feb;12(1):105-14. doi: 10.1586/erp.11.100.
In this article, we will focus on how preferences and utilities are measured, including the strengths and limitations of various approaches, discuss their use in estimating quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and make some recommendations for further research. Preferences are either measured using direct (visual analog scale, time trade-off or standard gamble) or indirect methods. The most commonly used generic indirect measures include the Quality of Well-Being scale, EuroQol-5 Dimension, Health Utilities Index and Short Form-6 Dimension. Disease-specific preference measures are increasingly being developed and applied in studies as more sensitive measures of health status. Preference-based measures and QALY measurement need to be enhanced, and additional research is needed to improve scientific methods for estimating preferences for health assessment. Given the increased focus on comparative effectiveness research, QALYs have the potential for helping researchers, clinicians, health policy-makers and patients to understand the relative effectiveness of alternative interventions for treating medical conditions.
在本文中，我们将重点讨论如何衡量偏好和效用，包括各种方法的优缺点，讨论它们在估计质量调整生命年（QALY）中的应用，并为进一步的研究提出一些建议。偏好可以通过直接（视觉模拟量表、时间权衡或标准博弈）或间接方法进行测量。最常用的通用间接测量方法包括健康状况量表、欧洲五维健康量表、健康效用指数和简短形式六维度量表。随着对健康状况更敏感的衡量指标的需求不断增加，疾病特异性偏好衡量指标也在不断开发和应用于研究中。基于偏好的衡量指标和 QALY 衡量指标需要得到加强，需要进行更多的研究来改进用于评估健康评估偏好的科学方法。鉴于对比较有效性研究的关注度不断提高，QALY 有可能帮助研究人员、临床医生、卫生政策制定者和患者了解治疗医疗状况的替代干预措施的相对有效性。
