OBJECTIVES: To measure and analyze utility value assignment by professional pharmacy students to each of four chronic health states (Depression, Type 1 Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Hypertension) through utilization of one of the following utility assessment techniques: visual analog scale (VAS), feeling thermometer (FT), standard gamble (SG), and time-trade off (TTO). METHODS: Each Doctor of Pharmacy student (n = 195) was provided with a detailed patient vignette for each health state under evaluation. These cases contained information including the patient's drug therapy, overall health state and the impact of the latter on activities of daily living. Much care was given to ensure that each patient vignette was written in a manner that accurately reflected and depicted the health state being examined. Students were randomly assigned to evaluate each case using one of the four different utility assessment techniques. RESULTS: The utility values (Mean +/- SD) for each of the health states under consideration were as follows: Depression (0.66 +/- 0.16), Type 1 Diabetes (0.73 +/- 0.17), Rheumatoid Arthritis (0.48 +/- 0.17), and Hypertension (0.83 +/- 0.12). A consistent trend emerged for all four health states being evaluated where the student assigned average utility score was highest when using the SG technique, second highest using TTO, third highest when adopting the FT and lowest when using an untransformed VAS score. A statistically significant difference (p<0.05) between utility scores as measured by the SG technique and the VAS was found for each of the four health states under investigation. There was no significant difference in health state utility value assignment based on either a students' gender or age. CONCLUSION: Student assessment of health-related quality of life varied considerably as a function of the type of health state being evaluated and/or the utility assessment technique which was adopted.