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Qualia years (QY)—not years—should be the unit of measurement of QALYs, DALYs, life expectancy, and life
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The complementary concepts QALYs and DALYs combine years of life and quality of life in a single measure.1–3 In Arnesen and Nord’s words: “QALYs are years of healthy life lived; DALYs are years of healthy life lost. Both approaches multiply the number of years (x axis) by the quality of those years (y axis). QALYs use “utility weights” of health states; DALYs use “disability weights” to reflect the burden of the same states. If the utility of deafness is …