Disability-Adjusted Life Year as a Guide-for Health Policy

for Health Policy V N Kothari I S Gulati The question of efficiency in public health expenditure is lately attracting considerable attention at the hands of health economists. The World Bank's World Development Report, 1993 advocates measuring the burden of disease in units known as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). This paper discusses the limitations of the concept and tries to bring out the implications of adopting DALY as a policy guide in the pursuit of health care objectives, particularly in a developing country such as India.