Valuation of risks to life and health: monetary Value of a Life Year (VOLY)
Study assessing the need for primary research to update the Value of a Life Year (VOLY) and Willingness-To-Pay for Quality Adjusted Life-Year (WTP-QALY).
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This report reviews the case for updating key measures applied in the UK government for valuing changes in mortality risk and health due to government policy (the monetary value of a life year (VOLY) and quality-adjusted life year (QALY)). These values are set out in Her Majesty’s (HM) Treasury guidance (The Green Book: appraisal and evaluation in central government) and are used in economic appraisals to support policymaking and business cases.
The report provides recommendations on:
- the need for, and feasibility of, undertaking new large-scale primary research to update these values
- developing a conceptual framework proposing the theoretical relationships between the value
- outlining an empirical approach for undertaking any new research, including the main methodological issues a new study would need to address
In developing the recommendations, the researchers undertook five in-depth literature reviews addressing the five questions posed in the research specification:
- What are the relevant published estimates of the Value of a Life Year, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
- What are the main methodological issues in deriving a Value of a Life Year and what approaches exist in literature for addressing these?
- Can a Value of a Life Year be derived which is compatible with a Quality-Adjusted Life Year framework?
- Is it possible to derive a context-free Value of a Life Year for application across different policy contexts?
- What is the relationship between the Value of a Life Year and the Value of a Prevented Fatality?
These literature reviews are provided as annexes to the main report.
The research was commissioned by a group of seven government departments and agencies, led by the Health and Safety Executive (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Department of Health and Social Care; Department for Transport; Food Standards Agency; Food Standards Scotland; Home Office).