Estimated Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), United States, 2021Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) is a measure that combines quality of life (QoL) and life expectancy. QoL is measured on a scale from 0 to 1, where 0 represents death and 1 represents perfect health.

Sex Age Group
(in years) 		Average QALYs Lost due to
DiabetesQuality Adjusted Life Year, or QALYs, is a measure that accounts for early mortality and morbidity caused by diabetes by assigning patient utility values to health states and then summing utility values for each period over an appropriate time horizon (e.g., a person's remaining life expectancy). 		Number of Persons
with Diabetes (in thousands) 		Total QALYs Lost due to
Diabetes (in thousands)Reports the total number of QALYs lost across all people with diabetes.
Overall 18-44 9.7 3,963 38,408
45-64 5.5 12,438 68,004
65-74 2.7 7,581 20,522
75+ 1.4 5,486 7,924
Total 4.6 29,470 134,858
Male 18-44 10.1 1,995 20,185
45-64 5.3 6,509 34,369
65-74 2.7 3,891 10,351
75+ 1.5 2,644 4,047
Total 4.6 15,040 68,952
Female 18-44 9.3 1,968 18,223
45-64 5.7 5,929 33,635
65-74 2.8 3,690 10,171
75+ 1.4 2,842 3,878
Total 4.6 14,430 65,906

Data Sources: 2013-2017 National Health Interview Survey, 2021 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Arias, E., Xu, J. (2022). "Provisional Life Expectancy Estimates for 2021."

Notes: Average QALYs lost due to diabetes are averaged across each age year in the age group. Total estimates represent the weighted average of the age/sex group estimates, where the weights represent the relative share of persons with diabetes accounted for by each group.

Estimated numbers are rounded by group and may not add to totals.

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