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Question 2#

A 24-year-old man in Tanzania is traveling without helmet on the back of a motorbike sideswipes a large truck. He is brought in to the hospital and found to have rib fractures, a femur fracture, and a traumatic brain injury. If one wanted to calculate the impact of this injury on his life, one could calculate a Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) score. What components make up this score?

A. Years of life lived
B. Severity of illness and years of life lived with that disability
C. Patient quality of life and years of life lived with impaired quality of life
D. Years of life lost, compared to country average, and a weighted calculation of life years lived with disability

Correct Answer is D

Comment:

The Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) score is a measure of overall disease burden expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability, or early death. The DALY has become commonly used in public health in dealing with the Health Impact Assessment. DALYs deal with potential life years lost due to premature death or disability. This combines morbidity and mortality into a single metric. Health liabilities are typically measured in Years of Life Lost (YLL). However, YLL does not take into account disability, often expressed as Years Lived with Disability (YLD). DALYs are calculated by taking the sum of these two components. A valuation of the "severity" of the disability must be made to accurately account for the degree of patient disability.

DALY = YLL + YLD

The DALY reflects chronic illness and amount of time a person remains affected. One DALY is equal to 1 year of healthy life lost. DALY can be applied to a multitude of conditions including physical, psychiatric, and neurologic conditions.