A MULTIATTRIBUTE APPROACH TO HEALTH-STATUS MEASUREMENT AND CLINICAL MANAGEMENT ILLUSTRATED BY AN APPLICATION TO BRAIN-TUMORS IN CHILDHOOD

A comprehensive multi-attribute system was devised to assess global mo rbidity burden. The system was used to obtain qualitative and quantita tive measures of health-status for a case series of survivors of brain tumors in childhood. Health-related quality-of-life scores for each g lobal health-state were calculated from a utility function derived fro m measures of preferences collected during surveys of a random sample of parents of school age children in the general public (n=194). Globa l multi-attribute health status (MAHS) utility scores revealed a wide range of severity in morbidity burden. We suggest that the assessment of health-related quality-of-life should become an integral part of cl inical management.