Absolutely Relative : on the value of health outcomes

The resources available for health care are scarce. While the demand for health care increases, for instance due to ageing of the population and increasing treatment options, the available budget is limited.
This means that difficult choices need to be made about how to spend these resources optimally. Economic evaluations may guide such choices. They compare the costs and health benefits of alternative interventions and identify which interventions provide most ‘value for money’.
Understanding what health ‘value’ means, is essential for making such comparisons. This thesis contributes to this by investigating one component of health ‘value’: relative health value.