What does QALY stand for?

• A. Quality-Adjusted Life Year
• B. Quick Additional Life Year
• C. Quantified Average Life Year
• D. Quality and Longevity Year

Answer: (A)

QALY stands for Quality-Adjusted Life Year. It’s a measure used in health economics to compare the value of medical interventions by combining both how long people live and how well they live. Each year of life is weighted from 0 (dead) to 1 (perfect health). So one year in perfect health equals 1 QALY, while a year in a health state valued at 0.6 equals 0.6 QALYs. This makes it possible to see whether a treatment provides more benefit by extending life, improving quality of life, or both. For example, a therapy that adds two years of life at a quality of 0.8 yields 1.6 QALYs. This is why the term used is the Quality-Adjusted Life Year. The other options don’t reflect the established term or the concept of adjusting life years by quality.