Objective: To review the use of measures of health status in the assessment of benefits in economic evaluation, whether or not the measures were designed for this purpose.
Methods: The review was based on a systematic search of the literature. It provides a comprehensive assessment of the evidence where it exists and a balanced overview of opinion otherwise.
Results: Over 3000 papers were identified, of which 632 were found to be relevant. The review provides a set of recommendations. These include: a checklist of questions for selecting a measure for use in economic evaluation; a list of circumstances in which non-preference-based measures can be used; and recommendations surrounding the use of health state valuation techniques and multi-attribute utility scales.
Conclusion: These recommendations should help to identify poor economic evaluations and hence guard against inefficient conclusions being drawn regarding the provision of health services.