http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/14375/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37723/ 2012-09-01T00:00:00Z Objective: Western Europe has high levels of alcohol consumption, with corresponding adverse health effects. Currently, a major revision of the EU excise tax regime is under discussion. We quantify the health impact of alcohol price increases across the EU. Data and method: We use alcohol consumption data for 11 member states, covering 80% of the EU-27 population, and corresponding country-specific disease data (incidence, prevalence, and case-fatality rate of alcohol related diseases) taken from the 2010 published Dynamic Modelling for Health Impact Assessment (DYNAMO-HIA) database to dynamically project the changes in population health that might arise from changes in alcohol price. Results: Increasing alcohol prices towards those of Finland (the highest in the EU) would postpone approximately 54,000 male and approximately 26,100 female deaths over 10. years. Moreover, the prevalence of a number of chronic diseases would be reduced: in men by approximately 97,800 individuals with diabetes, 65,800 with stroke and 62,200 with selected cancers, and in women by about 19,100, 23,500, and 27,100, respectively. Conclusion: Curbing excessive drinking throughout the EU completely would lead to substantial gains in population health. Harmonisiation of prices to the Finnish level would, for selected diseases, achieve more than 40% of those gains. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11456/ 1993-01-01T00:00:00Z Utility measures of health-related quality of life are preference values that patients attach to their overall health status. In clinical trials, utility measures summarize both positive and negative effects of an intervention into one single value between 0 (equal to death) and 1 (equal to perfect health). These measures allow for comparison of patient outcomes of different diseases and allow for comparison between various health care interventions. There are two different approaches to utility measurement. The first is to classify patients into categories based on their responses to a number of questions about their functional status, as for instance the Quality of Well-Being questionnaire. The second approach is to ask patients to assign a single rating to their overall health by means of rating scale, standard gamble, time trade-off, or willingness to pay. The Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) as outcome measure includes both effects in terms of quality and quantity of life. Utilities are used as weights to adjust life years for the quality of life in order to calculate QALYs. Both QALYs and utilities are useful in decision-making regarding appropriate procedures for groups of patients.