Understanding the Concept of Quality of Life
When health professionals speak of quality of life, they mean more than just a patient’s physical and emotional state. It embodies their overall sense of well-being and happiness, including family relationships, financial stability, social connections and spiritual beliefs. It’s relative, subjective and hard to quantify—which is why it’s so important. Health researchers often measure the effectiveness of an intervention or program by its impact on a patient’s quality-adjusted life years. However, that’s only part of the picture, because it doesn’t tell us if the program improved how happy and fulfilled a patient feels in their day-to-day lives.
To understand the complexity of the concept of quality of life, researchers have developed a variety of theoretical models. One model focuses on the concept of “becoming,” which includes three domains: practical becoming (one’s evaluation of domestic activities, paid work or school, and volunteer efforts focused on meeting one’s health or social needs), leisure becoming (one’s evaluation of leisure activities that promote relaxation or stress reduction) and growth becoming (the perception that a person is learning and growing).
A patient’s level of satisfaction with their life also influences their quality of life. For example, someone who is working in a profession they love with coworkers and friends they enjoy may feel satisfied with their life. However, they may also feel dissatisfied with their quality of life if they are working long hours or spending too much time away from home and family.
Another way that people measure their quality of life is by comparing their perceived well-being to the average or expected level of well-being for the general population. This approach is called normative quality of life, and it takes into account a number of factors, such as the level of personal safety and economic opportunity in a country.
Lastly, many experts believe that an individual’s quality of life depends on the means they have to satisfy their wants and needs. They take into account their income, housing, access to education and entertainment, the number of people in their household and their employment status.
Some experts also believe that the means a person has does not necessarily translate into their quality of life. They argue that if an individual is rich but has poor family and work relationships, they will have a lower quality of life than a person who has poor wealth but has loving and supportive family relationships. However, others have found that a person’s perception of their quality of life can change over time as they gain more experience and skills in different areas of their lives. For example, a person with Down syndrome who learned to read and write in a structured way over six years had a better quality of life than other people with Down syndrome who didn’t. This is because it helped them build independence and self esteem. It also allowed them to make new friends and develop a more positive attitude toward their future.