What are quality of life measurements measuring?

Abstract

It is now widely acknowledged that the personal burden of illness cannot be described fully by measures of disease status such as size of infarction, tumour load, and forced expiratory volume. Psychosocial factors such as pain, apprehension, restricted mobility and other functional impairments, difficulty fulfilling personal and family responsibilities, financial burden, and diminished cognition must also be encompassed. The area of research that has resulted from this recognition is termed "health related quality of life." It moves beyond direct manifestations of illness to study the patient's personal morbidity-that is, the various effects that illnesses and treatments have on daily life and life satisfaction. Although quality of life assessment was almost unknown 15 years ago, it has rapidly become an integral variable of outcome in clinical research; over 1000 new articles each year are indexed under "quality of life."Although the importance of quality of life is broadly acknowledged, scepticism and confusion remain about how quality of life should be measured and its usefulness in medical research. These responses may reflect important conceptual and methodological limitations of the current concept of quality of life. We offer a simple framework that describes the core elements of quality of life related to health and use this to evaluate quality of life measurement as it is currently conducted.

The effectiveness of bariatric surgery on long term psychosocial quality of life – A systematic review

“…Saying this, research into psychosocial QoL in bariatric surgery patients is sparse. This may be because data collected in this area is mainly based on subjective self-reported HRQoL measures which tend to compare unfavourably to 'stronger' evidence from physiological, psychological and biochemical tests [21][22][23][24][25][26]. Another reason may be the fact that health professionals working in this area are largely trained in the medical model [27,28] where focusing on physiological issues is more natural than adopting the biopsychosocial approach to patient care.…”

Quality of life and health‐related quality of life of adolescents with cerebral palsy

“…Operating under the assumption that functional status, health status, and QOL are effectively the same construct, 8 such an approach employs assessments of daily functioning rather than reports of perceived well-being. 13 More recent consideration suggests that these outcomes are fundamentally different -an idea that has been argued theoretically by Leplège and Hunt, 14 and supported empirically by Smith et al after a meta-analysis of QOL and health status in 12 chronic disease studies. 15 The present study reports self-and proxy-assessed QOL along with parental accounts of HRQOL of a cohort of adolescents with CP participating in a longitudinal study charting mobility and self-care through the adolescent years.…”

Qualidade de vida de vítimas de trauma seis meses após a alta hospitalar

“…1,9,15,17 Instruments to assess life conditions have been studied, aiming to measure repercussions of health problems. 12, 13 Distinct quality of life defi nitions have been suggested in several countries and cultures. The World Health Organization (WHO) defi nes quality of life as "the perception by individuals of their position in life, in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns".…”