In this study, the researchers summarized evidence on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) impacts of gambling. The researchers identified previous studies that estimated the effects of gambling on HRQoL. Studies used either direct (i.e., asking participants about their perceived impact of gambling on quality of life) or indirect elicitation methods (i.e., using statistics to estimate how HRQoL differs across gambling risk level). They then developed a hybrid approach that combines both direct and indirect methods. Direct elicitation was used to establish the maximum impact on HRQoL for the most severe levels of gambling harm, and indirect elicitation was used to estimate the impacts for lower levels of harm. The findings provide insight into the impacts of gambling on HRQoL across the harm spectrum. The study offers a novel approach for measuring how gambling harms health and wellbeing using standard public health metrics.
