The critique of DALYs: a counter-reply

Abstract

The DALY Review Group of the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research (ACHR) believes that, unless they are constructed purely as an intellectual exercise, indicators should have a function--ultimately to guide decision-making about resource allocation. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) obscure too much and in its present stage of development the DALY approach does not solve the problem of prioritization and of resource allocation and may yet turn out to have been a side-track.