The social value of health programmes: is age a relevant factor?
探讨在成本效果分析中是否应根据患者年龄对健康收益进行加权，并通过实验发现年龄是评估健康收益时的相关因素。
In cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) it is usually assumed that a quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) is of equal value to everybody, irrespective of the patient's age. However, it is possible that society assigns different social values to a QALY, according to who gets it. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of weighting health benefits for age in CEA. We also examine the possibility that age-related preferences depend on the size of the health gain. An experiment was performed to test these hypotheses. The assessment of results suggests that the patient's age is a relevant factor when assessing health gains.