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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jan 31.
Published in final edited form as: Neoreviews. 2015 Feb 1;16(2):e94–e108. doi: 10.1542/neo.16-2-e94

Figure 9.

Figure 9

Quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). Health-related quality of life is rated from 0 (death) to 1 (perfect health). This number is multiplied by life-years to get QALYs. A comparison is made regarding the outcome of 2 neonates with transposition of great arteries (TGA). Before the performance of CCHD screen, an infant with TGA was discharged home at 36 hours and was admitted in a critical state through the emergency department (ED). He subsequently underwent cardiac surgery under suboptimal state of health and succumbed to multiorgan failure at age 3 months (0.25 years). His QALY is calculated as follows: quality of life (0.1 - poor quality of life) X 0.25 years = 0.025 (shown in blue). In a second infant with TGA, CCHD screen resulted in early diagnosis before onset of circulatory compromise. This patient (shown in green) had a good quality of life (0.8) during the first year. After an acute coronary event, his quality of life decreased to 0.5 for 4 years and 0.2 for 1 year. The patient died at age 6 years of an acute coronary event. His QALY shown in green font is 3.