title: Which aspects of subjectively reported quality of life are important in predicting mortality beyond known risk factors? The Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate which aspects of Quality of Life (QoL) (physical health, psychological, social-relationships, and environment) are important in predicting mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 448 (194 men and 254 women) relatively healthy older adults reported their QoL using the WHOQOL-BREF. After a 9-year follow-up, survival analysis was carried out using Cox's proportional hazards regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only the General Health item (HR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.64-0.89) and Physical Health Domain mean score (HR = 0.90, 95% CI: 86-0.95) significantly predicted mortality when controlling for age and sex. The single-item General Health measure was the stronger predictor of mortality and remained significant after socio-demographic, psychological (personality and cognition), health behaviour and health status measures were controlled for independently. When all measures were simultaneously controlled for, none of the items or domains on the WHOQOL-BREF significantly predicted mortality.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Items addressing health-related QoL are the most important when predicting mortality. The findings support research demonstrating that subjectively rated, single-item general health questions accurately predict survival over and above socio-demographic, psychological, health behaviour and health status measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: Caroline E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Brett
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Starr
authors.forename: Ian J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Deary
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016019:Survival Analysis; D006113:United Kingdom