A multiattribute approach to health-status measurement and clinical management illustrated by an application to brain-tumors in childhood

Abstract

A comprehensive multi-attribute system was devised to assess global morbidity burden. The system was used to obtain qualitative and quantitative measures of health-status for a case series of survivors of brain tumors in childhood. Health-related quality-of-life scores for each global health-state were calculated from a utility function derived from measures of preferences collected during surveys of a random sample of parents of school age children in the general public (n=194). Global multi-attribute health status (MAHS) utility scores revealed a wide range of severity in morbidity burden. We suggest that the assessment of health-related quality-of-life should become an integral part of clinical management.