WHO Quality of Life
Overview of the WHO Quality of Life
The World Health Organization defines quality of life as a person’s perceptions of their position in life in the setting of the culture and value systems in which they live in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns (Krageloh et al., 2011). The WHOQOL-100 was developed by the World Health Organization composed of many different doctors and other healthcare providers in order to develop an assessment that could be used internationally and cross-culturally to measure a person’s overall quality of life and well-being, instead of a specific disease. This assessment led to the development of the WHOQOL-BREF, which is an abbreviated version of the WHOQOL-100 because the WHOQOL-100 is too lengthy for practical use; WHOQOL-BREF includes instructions for administering and scoring the assessment. The purpose of this assessment is to provide quality assessments in healthcare, focus attention on all aspects of health, and produce interventions that increase focus on a patient’s well-being (Harper, 1996). There were three main stages to the development of the WHOQOL assessment. The first stage of development consisted of the establishment of a definition of quality of life and how the assessment would be used internationally. The second stage of development explored the quality of life cross-culturally among different fields to establish relevance to the quality of life assessment. The third stage of
Introduction: Cultures, social, ethnicity, English proficiency are factors that my significantly affect the quality of healthcare. Patient’s perspective, values, beliefs and behavior are highly influenced by the sociocultural background pf the patient (1-5). These factors can affect dealing with patient’s symptoms, seeking care, pain toleration, care adherence, preventive measure, and health care expectations.
Armstrong, D., & Caldwell, D. (2004). Origins of the concept of quality of life in health
Should people put the value of life into monetary value or should life be kept solely as an emotional quantity? People and societies throughout the ages have been trying to answer the problem of putting the value of life into terms of dollar bills. The ancient Egyptians buried their dead with all of their worldly belongings. They believed a person’s monetary worth on Earth was over, and they should take all of that earthly worth with them to the afterlife. Modern day Americans are different from the Egyptians. Today people believe that the families of the dead should be compensated for “their” loss.
It is important for individuals to take control of their health and wellbeing. This is achieved through personal vitality aimed at creating an objective that summarizes one’s health and thus assist in improving their health. Therefore, through a holistic evaluation an individual is able to create a synthesis of their personal health across all aspects of wellness and thus get the possible actions they should take. As such, the holistic evaluation gives an effective measure of the overall vitality by a robust picture of one’s health, where it is going as well as the actions that should be taken. Personal vitality also provides a measure of value creation in health.
Giger and Davidhizar’s Transcultural Assessment Model is a valuable and functional assessment tool that evaluates the different cultural variables and how those variables effect health, illness and behaviors (Giger, 2013). This philosophy considers the uniqueness of each individual, understanding that the individual is unique, a product of their culture, religion, environment socioeconomic status and diversity. Giger and Dividhizar propose that, as health care providers, we need an acute awareness of the ethnicity and culture of each individual, having the knowledge and understanding to care for them as
In 2001, the US Institute of Medicine’s seminal report, ‘Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century’, recommended six goals for improvement in healthcare, with one focusing on patient-centred care (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2011). Furthermore, various international organisations, such as the Institute for Patient- and Family-
While some may believe that Canada’s quality of life is at a rise, those people are far from the truth. People are under the impression that, “Canada’s quality of life is the best it’s ever been.” Well it is not. Canada’s quality of life is in fact declining. Some of these factors include education, health, and the environment for reasons like plain laziness and ignorance. As Lester Fuller and Edwin Rolfe once said, “Never tell a book by it’s cover.” That is exactly what people assume about Canada from all these textbooks that show Canada and its quality of life in a good light. And we will explain why that is wrong.
There is no universally accepted definition for quality of life but it incorporates the individual’s subjective view of a broad range of clinical, functional, and personal aspects. Researchers have developed two types of quality of life assessments. The first is health related quality of life (HRQOL), which assesses the client’s perception of how their health status affects their physical, psychological, and social functioning, and well-being. The assessment is based on a series of questions the client is asked. The second type is the overall quality of life (OQOL), which focuses on the client’s satisfaction with life in general, not just in relation to the limitations of functioning that are related to disease. According to Laudet (2011), “One influential definition of OQOL drafted by the World Health Organization (WHO) is an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to there goals, expectations, standards and concerns” (WHOQOL Group, 1995, para. 5). The standard for measuring OQOL is the WHO quality of life instrument, which assesses the client’s perception of how they are functioning objectively. The subjective views obtained by QOL measures are important because they offer a better perspective to the
Although the issues post-WW1 were very damaging, Canadians began to see hope for improved and exceptional quality of life between the years of 1946-1967. They felt stronger as they progressed rapidly in education, transportation and culture. Respectively, all these themes had played a crucial role in a better quality of life, for all Canadians as a population.
What are the top causes of death by age group? How do these change across age groups?
There is not singe factor that determine the quality of health and wellbeing. Many intersecting social and individual factors control the societies health. Income inequality is one of the leading determinant for our health. The effects of income inequality on health maybe understood by examining some social mechanisms, such as public education and healthcare, structural violence, disruption of social cohesion and social capital; and individual risky behaviors. (Kawachi and Kennedy, 1999)
Quality of Life Index is an estimation of overall quality of life by using a formula. China currently has the highest rate of pollution and the amount is growing every year. This emphasis on growing the economy quickly and in the least cost method is jeopardizing the health of the nation’s citizens. They must focus on consumer health above corporate profits.
Quality of Life (QOL) has been a valued and key component to the health care industry. Research examines the relationship with nursing home staff who deals with a certain chronic illness, such as dementia and their quality of life. Several studies have been used to understand the existence of a perception gap-the extent to which quality-of-life ratings provided by nursing home residents and caregivers.
Throughout this paper I will be pulling information from the Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model. It is pertinent for health care workers to be familiar with this model because of the growing affects that culture has on a patient’s view of disease prevention and health restoration. This model focuses on six cultural phenomena: communication, time, space, social organization, environmental control, and biological variations. It is important for nurses to utilize this tool while performing assessments on patients because of the substantial effects that each one has on a patient’s perspective. Every person is unique and knowing that no one perspective is universal will aid the nurse in treating each patient with culturally competent care.
Outcome measures are the first step in determining the consequence of health care and the quality of public health services (Perreira et al. 2004). The focus on these measures is to improve quality of life through prevention and treatment of diseases (Binns and Low 2015). Outcomes information used for research for the development of clinical practice and bring the gap between what is done and what is actually accomplish (Perreira et al. 2004). Policy makers use health outcomes for public health planning. The effect of public spending on health usually measured by health outcome variables such as life expectancy and mortality (Gani 2009). These measures are historically recognized in the literature as best outcome measures in health and they