TCQOLI Documentation
This page summarizes the main paper supporting the TCQOLI, the purpose of the index, and the scoring logic used on this website.
Primary Paper
Cunningham et al. (2026). A Thyroid-Cancer-Specific Utility Index: Development and Valuation of the Thyroid Cancer Quality of Life Index.
This paper describes the development of the TCQOLI as a thyroid-cancer-specific preference-based utility index and provides the valuation framework used to convert questionnaire responses into utility scores.
What the Paper Contributes
- It defines the TCQOLI as a disease-specific utility instrument for thyroid cancer.
- It supports the domain structure used in the 10-question and 9-question assessments.
- It provides the additive model used to calculate unscaled disutility, raw utility, and final utility.
- It supports interpreting the final result as a preference-based quality-of-life utility score on a 0 to 1 scale.
How This Website Scores TCQOLI
The website applies the additive model described in the paper in three steps:
- Calculate the unscaled disutility from the weighted item-level disutility values.
- Convert that result to raw utility with
rawUtility = 1 - unscaledDisutility. - Rescale to final utility with
finalUtility = rawUtility x 0.87 + 0.13.
The final utility score is the primary displayed result. The burden score shown elsewhere on the site is the unscaled disutility and is presented only as a secondary technical value.
Using the Paper Alongside the Website
The paper should be treated as the primary methodological reference for researchers using the TCQOLI. The website is intended to make administration and scoring easier, but the article remains the definitive source for instrument development, valuation, and interpretation.