Abstract
Aims: A discussion of how quality-adjusted life years are used to inform resource allocation decisions and highlight how assumptions underpinning the measurement of quality of life are contrary to the principles of patient-centred care. Background: Cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) can provide influential guidance for health resource allocation, particularly in the context of a budget-constrained public health insurance plan. Most national economic guideline bodies recommend that quality-adjusted life year weights for CEA be elicited indirectly (public preferences). This has potentially important implications for healthcare provision and research, as it discounts the ability of a person experiencing an illness to describe how it affects their quality of life. Design: Discussion paper. Data sources: Guidelines for the conduct of health economic evaluations, influential methodological and theoretical texts, and a review of PubMed conducted in April 2017. Implications for Nursing: Nurses are increasingly interested in leveraging methods from health economics to aid in decision-making and advocacy. In this analysis, we highlight how taken-for-granted approaches to the measurement of quality of life may discount the experience of patients and lead to decisions that are contrary to the principles of patient-centred care. Nurses conducting or reading research using these methods should consider whether the approach used to measure the quality of life are appropriate for the population under consideration. Conclusion: Since patient and public health preferences can differ in both magnitude and direction, guideline bodies should re-evaluate their partiality for public preferences in the reference case.
Translated title of the contribution | Are guidelines for measurement of quality of life contrary to patient-centred care? |
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Original language | Chinese (Simplified) |
Pages (from-to) | 2677-2684 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Advanced Nursing |
Volume | 74 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Disher is supported by a Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Killam Trust (or Foundation), Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, Dalhousie Faculty of Graduate Studies, and the Dalhousie University. Campbell-Yeo is supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- General Nursing