Leprosy Mailing List – June 26, 2015
Ref.: (LML) Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs)
From: Kerstin Beise, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Dear Dr Schreuder,
May I add to the discussion a perspective of persons with disabilities?
There also has been a lot of criticism about the use of DALYs, particularly from the disability movement itself. Firstly because when measured with DALYs, disability is seen as problem and a burden, and years lived with disability as less valuable than without, particularly in economic sense. Secondly because disability is not only a health problem or often not at all, but a social, economic and political one. Adjustments to the value of life years would not be necessary, or to a lesser extent, if persons with disabilities had equal opportunities in all domains of life.
This point is made by Mont and Loeb (2008. Beyond DALYs: Developing Indicators to Assess the Impact of Public Health Interventions on the Lives of People with Disabilities, World Bank): “DALYs do not reflect the change in people’s functional status or well-being if they receive rehabilitation services, assistive devices, accommodations, or live in a society that has become more open and accessible to individuals with functional limitations. DALYs only reflect the presence of a medical condition that is associated with certain functional limitations. Therefore, public health interventions that mitigate the effects of a health condition but do not “cure” it, get no credit.”
With kind regards,
Kerstin Beise
Consultant for Inclusion and Disability, Netherlands Leprosy Relief
LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder
LML blog link: http://leprosymailinglist.blogspot.it/
Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << editorlml@gmail.com
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