Table 3.

Calculation of QALY loss and healthcare costs associated with each patient who experiences an adverse event

Health states	Proportion of patients with adverse events in each state (a)	Average duration in state (years) (b)	Disutility of state* (c)	Cost per adverse event (€) (d)	QALY loss (a×b×c)	Cost (€) (a×d)
Death	0.05	10	1	5045	0.5	252
Permanent >50%	0.02	10	0.69	8755	0.138	175
Permanent ≤50%	0.03	10	0.36	7865	0.108	236
Moderate impairment, recovery >6 months	0.10	1	0.19	3923	0.019	392
Moderate impairment, recovery >1 to 6 months	0.30	0.25	0.12	82†	0.009	25
Minimal impairment, recovery <1 month	0.50	0.08	0.05	0	0.002	0
Expected total per person with adverse event					0.775	1080

*From table 2.

†Assuming 44% of patients incurred a visit to the emergency department (costed at €151 per visit) and in 56% of patients it involved a visit to their primary care physician (costed at €28 per visit). Based on data from Forster et al,¹³ and cost estimates from Tan et al.³¹

QALY, Quality Adjusted Life Year 2012.