[Health-related quality of life measures]

This article highlights reasons, why generic and standardised measures of health related quality of life are needed. It discusses briefly the methodological steps required in developing such a measure. As an example a generic 15 dimensional measure of health-related quality of life (15D) is introduced and experiences gained from its use are described. In principle, the measure defines billions of mutually exclusive 15 dimensional states. The experiences gained suggest 15D to be reliable, widely applicable, practical and easy to use. The measure provides a convenient tool for repeated measurement of health-related quality of life. The two-stage valuation method applied for deriving the values for 15D dramatically simplifies the valuation process and makes the task easier than the traditional direct valuation methods. Finally, examples of projects, where 15D is or has been applied, are given.