Comparison of direct and indirect methods of estimating health state utilities for resource allocation: review and empirical analysis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Utilities (values representing preferences) for healthcare priority setting are typically obtained indirectly by asking patients to fill in a quality of life questionnaire and then converting the results to a utility using population values. We compared such utilities with those obtained directly from patients or the public. DESIGN: Review of studies providing both a direct and indirect utility estimate.