Farquhar M
Medical College, St Bartholomew's Hospital, University of London, England.
Soc Sci Med. 1995 Nov;41(10):1439-46. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(95)00117-p.
The subject of this paper is the definition and measurement of the concept of quality of life, and questions the operationalization of quality of life simply in terms of health status measures and scales of functional ability. It is based on a review of the literature, and the initial analyses of the first stage of a study designed to identify individual's views of the quality of their lives and to test the relevance of various scales used to measure quality of life. The study focuses on older people living at home in two contrasting areas of south east England, and demonstrates not only that older people can talk about, and do think about, quality of life, but also highlights how quality of life varies for different age groups of the elderly population living at home, in different geographical areas. In addition, early conclusions also indicate that there is more to quality of life than health; indeed, social contacts appear to be as valued components of a good quality of life as health status. This study deals with issues high on the agenda of the current debate on quality of life and its measurement; it has implications for those involved in both quality of life research and in health and social service policy for older people.
本文的主题是生活质量概念的定义与衡量，并质疑仅依据健康状况指标和功能能力量表来对生活质量进行操作化的做法。它基于文献综述以及一项研究第一阶段的初步分析，该研究旨在确定个体对其生活质量的看法，并检验用于衡量生活质量的各种量表的相关性。该研究聚焦于居住在英格兰东南部两个形成对比区域的居家老年人，不仅表明老年人能够谈论并确实在思考生活质量，还突出了对于居住在不同地理区域的居家老年人口的不同年龄组而言，生活质量是如何变化的。此外，早期结论还表明，生活质量不仅仅关乎健康；事实上，社交联系似乎与健康状况一样，都是优质生活中被重视的组成部分。这项研究涉及当前关于生活质量及其衡量的辩论议程上的重要问题；它对参与生活质量研究以及老年人健康和社会服务政策制定的人员都具有启示意义。
