Drawn from an international symposium on quality of life and health held in Berlin in May 1994, the 15 contributions to this volume provide an overview of the critical issues in health- related quality of life research in North America and in Europe. Topics addressed include defining and measuring quality of life, applying quality of life measures to various disease groups including the successes, challenges, and problems encountered, and the uses of quality of life measures on the general population level. Lacks an index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Questions concerning the notion of quality of life, its definition, and its ap plications for purposes of assessment and measurement in social and medical contexts, have been widely discussed in Scandinavia during the last ten years. To a great extent this discussion mirrors the international develop ment in the area. Several methods for the assessment and measurement of quality of life have been borrowed from the UK and the US and then further developed in northern Europe. But there has also been an internal develop ment. This holds in particular for the social arena, where Scandinavia has had a special tradition both in theory and practice. In this volume an attempt is made to illustrate some aspects of the philo sophical, and in general theoretical, discussion concerning quality of life in Scandinavia. In addition, some prominent scholars from other parts of Europe, i. e. , France, the Netherlands, the UK and Italy, have been invited to contribute. The volume is divided into three sections. The first contains philosophical analyses of the general notion of quality of life and proposes a number of different explications. The second section considers various ap plications of the notion of quality of life in health care. The papers serve to disentangle some intellectual and ethical problems that stem from these ap plications. The third section is more practical and focuses on methods of measuring quality of life in medicine and health care.

The rubric "Quality of Life" first came to the explicit attention of the medical profession a little over thirty years ago. Despite the undoubted fact that each one of us has his or her own Quality of Life, be it good or bad, there is still no general agreement about its definition, or the manner in which it should be evaluated. Although much has been written about quality of life, this work has been largely concerned with population-based studies, especially in health policy & health economics. The importance of individual quality of life has been neglected, in part because of a failure to define quality of life itself with sufficient care, in part perhaps because of a belief that it is impossible to develop a meaningful method of measuring individual variables. It is a fundamental belief of the editors of this book that the primary focus of quality of life is & must continue to be the individual, who alone can define it & assess its changing personal significances. The individual perspective is of vital importance not only to patients but to their doctors too, & is more & more frequently proposed as the most meaningful measure of outcome in clinical research, especially in non-remitting or chronic conditions. Workers who wish to consider wider aspects of influences on the illnesses suffered by individuals & the health care that they receive will find much to stimulate them in the methods of documentation proposed in this book. Those mainly concerned with population samples rather than individuals may also find the sensitive methods of investigation proposed here not only to be applicable to their own areas of interest, but also rewarding in perhaps unexpected ways.

This monograph provides an overview of critical points to be considered in the application of quality of life measures. An awareness of the concept of quality of life in health research is important for its application to specific research questions. In addition, consideration of specific analytic techniques and special measures of validity, both qualitative and quantitative, are important for competent analysis of results. Because a wide range of established measures have been developed in the USA, Canada and Britain, knowledge of the problems in the translation and cultural adaptation of original instruments is helpful for international research. Moreover, an awareness of European-developed instruments and the special advantages they offer is important. Finally, the application of quality of life measures to selected areas of medicine and health provide a state-of-the-art view into quality of life research.

Quality of life is a popular modern subject. The term quality of life appears in many contexts, including in newspapers and TV-commercials, often as an argument for buying a certain product.

How could one define health and disease? On what presuppositions, and ought we look for such definitions? Does quality of life inherit a subjective or objective evaluation? Are health and quality of life culture dependent concepts? Under the conditions of technologically advanced medicine and the common tendency towards a hedonistic lifestyle such questions come into focus. Hence, one question is of special relevance: which role does health play in our quality of life? The contributions of this interdisciplinary volume aim at the clarification of the various concepts in use. International scholars and scientists outline the framework for a more comprehensive and demanding concept of health and quality of life including philosophical and cultural aspects as well as medical and psychological dimensions.

It’s a core issue at the heart of elder care: while best-practice data exist for long-term care, quality of life as a concept, measure and standard for care outcomes remains elusive. The result of an ambitious European research initiative, the Care Keys Project addresses quality of life issues among frail, care-dependent seniors, taking their social as well as health needs into account. This resulting volume explains the theory behind Care Keys, its methodology, empirical findings, and practical considerations in promoting effective, efficient elder care aimed at social and emotional well-being and including disabled and cognitively impaired patients.

Quality, as exemplified by Quality-of-life (QoL) assessment, is frequently discussed among health care professionals and often invoked as a goal for improvement, but somehow rarely defined, even as it is regularly assessed. It is understood that some medical patients have a better QoL than others, but should the QoL achieved be compared to an ideal state, or is it too personal and subjective to gauge? Can a better understanding of the concept help health care systems deliver services more effectively? Is QoL worth measuring at all? Integrating concepts from psychology, philosophy, neurocognition, and linguistics, this book attempts to answer these complex questions. It also breaks down the cognitive-linguistic components that comprise the judgment of quality, including description, evaluation, and valuations, and applies them to issues specific to individuals with chronic medical illness. In this context, quality/QoL assessment becomes an essential contributor to ethical practice, a critical step towards improving the nature of social interactions. The author considers linear, non-linear, and complexity-based models in analyzing key methodology and content issues in health-related QoL assessment. This book is certain to stimulate debate in the research and scientific communities. Its forward-looking perspective takes great strides toward promoting a common cognitive-linguistic model of how the judgment of quality occurs, thereby contributing important conceptual and empirical tools to its varied applications, including QoL assessment.