The incremental effect of age-weighting on YLLs, YLDs, and DALYs: a response.

When disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were first formulated, the effect of age-weighting on years of life lost due to death at each age as well as the different effect on short- and medium-term disability were taken into consideration. While there is considerable scope for discussion on the actual values that are incorporated into DALYs, the present article argues that once the values have been chosen we should accept the consequences of the choice.