The role of quality of life information in influencing managed care decision making in the US is not well understood. Previous research has suggested that efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness information is viewed with the highest level of importance and quality of life information is viewed as more supplemental in nature. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how decision-makers view quality of life information. In particular, (1)the current and future use of the information was examined, (2)the usefulness and understanding of several types of QoL instruments, and (3)the perceived weaknesses and strengths of quality of life research. METHODS: 41 pharmacy and managed care directors completed a questionnaire by telephone to elicit their attitudes on QoL research in managed care decision making. RESULTS: Respondents felt that disease specific quality of life instruments were most useful (mean rank of 1.90 on a five point scale; 1=most useful), patient utility measures ranked 3.10 and generic quality of life measures 3.83. Respondents were asked their level of familiarity (five point Likert scale) with 11 common, disease specific and generic measures. They were most familiar with the SF-36 (mean rank 3.17) and least familiar with the EuroQoL (mean rank 1.34). Respondents felt that the results of QoL evaluations could not be generalized (51.2%) and suffered from too many assumptions (53.7%). Most respondents (52.7%) felt that the main strength of QoL studies was that they consider the perspective of the patient. CONCLUSIONS: Familiarity with QoL research and instruments by MCO decision-makers is relatively low, and research in the area suffers from broad acceptability. Future work should be conducted to educate MCOs on the usefulness of QoL evaluations.