Quantifying the Effect of Pill-taking on Quality of Life

Utility measures are used in cost-effectiveness studies to represent the effect a given outcome or intervention has on quality of life. Pills are common interventions used to try to reduce the risk of an adverse health outcome. The utility value for taking pills is often estimated or assumed to be 1.0, suggesting no effect on quality of life, but I wondered whether any studies had been published that quantified this utility value. This master’s paper has two goals. In the systematic review portion, I searched for published articles that quantified the utility of taking pills for preventive purposes. In the original research portion, I report the results of a study that quantified the utility value of taking pills to prevent an adverse health outcome. For the review, I systematically searched PUBMED using strategically selected keywords. This strategy was supplemented with a search of the Cochrane database, a hand search of bibliographies, and questioning of experts. Studies that calculated a utility value were included. I expanded the inclusion criteria to any article that cited a utility value for pill-taking for preventive purposes in adults. In the original research, we invited healthcare system employees to participate in an online survey about taking pills. We calculated mean utility values for taking pills and compared utility values across several demographic characteristics and by numeracy level. I found two published articles that quantified the utility value of taking aspirin and warfarin. I found a total of nineteen additional published articles that cite a utility value for taking pills for preventive purposes. All these values ranged from 0.95 – 1.0, depending on the type of pills. Through our original research project involving 708 adults, we found that the average utility value for taking one pill per day is 0.997. This value did not vary significantly by age, sex, race, education level, income level, or number of pills taken per day. Those with low numeracy level tended to have slightly lower utility values.Master of Public Healt