Estimating health effects in quality-of-life terms: health losses following road crashes.
Currently, measures of disability and health-related quality of life are becoming important, even essential, parameters in the evaluation of treatment and prevention strategies for reducing the burden of injury. The estimation of the 'health effect' induced by these policies should incorporate several important aspects: the proper definition of health effect, at individual and aggregate levels; the correct selection of a health metric; the accurate estimation of the short-term effect (direct health gain/loss) and long-term effect (total of health gain/loss throughout the life of the individual) that injuries may produce; and the suitable selection and management of databases. This review article focuses on the particular topic of road crashes, but the analysis can be extended to any sort of injury.
Cubí-Mollá
Patricia
P
Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico, Universidad de Alicante, Ctra. San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante s/n 03080, Spain. patriciac@merlin.fae.ua.es.