Double discounting of QALYs

Linda D. MacKeigan, Amiram Gafni and Bernie J. O'Brien

Health Economics, 2003, vol. 12, issue 2, 165-169

Abstract: Quality‐adjusted life‐years (QALYs) calculated from time tradeoff (TTO) based preferences have a time preference component. To impose a conventional discount rate on these implicitly discounted QALYs introduces some degree of double discounting. The purpose of this study was to determine the magnitude of the double discounting effect and the effectiveness of a suggested method for avoiding double discounting in a TTO‐based QALY model. Our analysis used holistic and composite preference scores obtained with the TTO technique in a prior study of four hypothetical treatment paths in type 2 diabetes. Discounted composite preference scores were significantly discrepant from holistic preference scores. Adjusting TTO‐based quality weights prior to external discounting reduced the discrepancy only slightly. Since time preference effects may vary with health state context, the double discounting effect needs further investigation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.718

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:12:y:2003:i:2:p:165-169

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones

More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().