Tranzo Scientific Centre for Care and Welfare, Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands.
Centre for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, GGzE Institute for Mental Health Care, Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Int J Methods Psychiatr Res. 2018 Sep;27(3):e1721. doi: 10.1002/mpr.1721. Epub 2018 May 25.
Conventional approaches to quality of life (QoL) measurement rely heavily on verbal, language-based communication. They require respondents to have significant cognitive and verbal ability, making them potentially unsuitable for people with severe mental health problems. To facilitate an alternative approach to QoL assessment, the current study aims to develop an alternative, visual representation of QoL for people with severe mental health problems.
An alternative, visual adaptation of the concept mapping method was used to construct this visual representation of QoL. Eighty-two participants (i.e., patients, care professionals, and family members) contributed to this study. Results were processed statistically to construct the concept map.
The concept map contains 160 unique visual statements, grouped into 8 clusters labelled (1) Support and Attention, (2) Social Contacts, (3) Happiness and Love, (4) Relaxation and Harmony, (5) Leisure, (6) Lifestyle, (7) Finances, and (8) Health and Living. Examples of visual statements are pictures of family silhouettes, romantic couples, natural scenes, houses, sports activities, wallets and coins, smiley faces, and heart shapes. The clusters were interpreted and labelled by participants.
Almost all of the statements correspond to clusters found in previous (non-visual) QoL research. Hence, QoL domains can also be presented visually.
传统的生活质量（QoL）测量方法主要依赖于口头语言交流。这些方法需要受访者具有较高的认知和语言能力，因此对于患有严重精神健康问题的人群可能不太适用。为了提供一种替代生活质量评估的方法，本研究旨在为患有严重精神健康问题的人群开发一种替代的、可视化的生活质量表示方法。
采用概念映射方法的可视化改编版来构建这种生活质量的可视化表示。82 名参与者（即患者、护理专业人员和家庭成员）参与了这项研究。结果经过统计学处理，构建了概念图。
概念图包含 160 个独特的视觉陈述，分为 8 个聚类，分别标记为（1）支持和关注，（2）社会联系，（3）幸福和爱，（4）放松与和谐，（5）休闲，（6）生活方式，（7）财务状况，以及（8）健康与生活。视觉陈述的示例包括家庭剪影、浪漫情侣、自然场景、房屋、体育活动、钱包和硬币、笑脸和心形等图片。聚类由参与者进行解释和标记。
几乎所有的陈述都与之前（非视觉）生活质量研究中发现的聚类相对应。因此，生活质量的领域也可以通过视觉方式呈现。
