The jungle of quality of life: Mapping measures and meanings for elders.
The literature on quality of life (QOL) can be described as a jungle: vast, dense and difficult to penetrate, especially for those entering the field without a specialist QOL background. While QOL as a term is entwined in an extensive body of work from many disciplines and covering diverse perspectives, it has been most extensively documented and operationalised within the domains of health-related socioeconomic drivers and is largely quantitative in nature. Subjective and qualitative measurement is less fully developed and documented. This review paper provides a map through the QOL literature by constructing a tabular framework to position the measures and meanings of QOL prior to undertaking a phenomenological study with older people. It concludes by arguing for attention to the further development of qualitative experiential measures specific to life-stage QOL for older people, having found these perspectives rarely visible.
Hambleton
Penny
P
Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Keeling
Sally
S
McKenzie
Margaret
M
D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life