Health Foundation report estimates cost of life years

A new Health Foundation report has estimated the cost of "saving" one extra year of life in five disease categories using a measure of years of life lost instead of a mortality rate.

The foundation's report estimates that, on the basis of expenditure data for 2005-06, the marginal cost of a life year saved is:

• £13,931 for cancer (£13,137 using 2004-05 expenditure data);

• £8,426 for circulation problems (£7,979 using 2004-05 expenditure data);

• £7,397 for respiratory problems;

• £18,999 for gastro-intestinal problems;

• £26,453 for diabetes.

Note these results have quite large confidence intervals and should be treated with caution.

From a policy perspective, these results can help set priorities by informing resource allocation across a larger number of programmes of care. They also add further evidence to help the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence decide whether its current quality-adjusted life years threshold is at the right level.