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Quality of life assessment

from Psychology, health and illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Ann Bowling
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Ann Bowling
Affiliation:
University College London
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
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Summary

Quality of life, and its sub-domain of health-related quality of life (the effects of health on quality of life), are increasingly popular concepts as endpoints in the evaluation of outcomes of health and social care. But the wider research community has accepted no common definition or definitive theoretical framework of quality of life or health-related quality of life. The wide range of definitions of these concepts was reviewed by Farquhar (1995), and the diverse contributions of sociology (functionalism) and psychology (subjective wellbeing) to the theoretical foundations of the concept of quality of life were described by Patrick and Erickson (1993) (See ‘Quality of life’).

Quality of life is a complex collection of interacting objective and subjective dimensions (Lawton, 1991). Like health, health-related quality of life (and broader quality of life), includes positive as well as negative aspects of wellbeing and life, it is multidimensional and is a dynamic concept: perspectives can change with the onset of major illness. Relevant cognitive or affective processes in individuals when faced with changing circumstances (e.g. in their health or lives) include making comparisons of one's situation with others who are better or worse off, cognitive dissonance reduction, re-ordering of goals and values and response shift whereby internal standards and values are changed – and hence the perception of one's health and life changes (Sprangers & Schwartz, 1999). People may adjust to deteriorating circumstances because they want to feel as good as possible about themselves.

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Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 319 - 321
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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