Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: To develop age- and sex-specific quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) norms for the general South Korean population, providing reference values in health technology assessment.
METHODS: Using the Sullivan method, mean EQ-5D-3L utility scores stratified by age and sex—valued with the 2007 Korean value set—were combined with life expectancy from the 2024 Statistics Korea life table to derive QALE. Utilities were estimated as survey-weighted means from two complementary nationally representative surveys: the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES; 2022, 2024) for ages 19-79 (n ≈ 10,900) and the Korea Community Health Survey (KCHS; 2024, 2025) for ages 80+ (n ≈ 44,000). QALE was estimated at 0%, 3.5%, and 4.5% discount rates.
RESULTS: Undiscounted QALE at birth was 76.0 QALYs in men and 78.5 in women; corresponding estimates were 21.3 and 23.6 at age 60, and 7.1 and 8.1 at age 80. Although women had higher QALE than men at every age, they spent a larger share of life in less-than-full health: the quality-adjusted fraction of remaining life expectancy fell with age, from 94% (men) and 91% (women) at birth to 83% and 74% at age 80. Discounting compressed these values substantially; at 3.5%, QALE at birth was 26.2 QALYs in both sexes. Norms are reported for every single year of age (0-100) by sex and discount rate.
CONCLUSIONS: These are the first age- and sex-specific QALE norms for South Korea, offering a standardized reference for severity-weighted health technology assessment.