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Measuring Quality of Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2015

William J. Taylor  and
Kathryn M. McPherson
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Extract

Demonstrating the effectiveness of health care interventions requires valid measurement of the impact, or outcome of those interventions. It is increasingly suggested that Quality of Life (QoL) is the ‘gold standard’ outcome internationally (Bowling 1995) and in Australasia (Mordue & Parkin, 1997). Although a number of QoL measures are now available, questions remain about the definition of the concept itself and the psychometric properties of those measures. A consequence of major concern is that health services research or clinical studies of healthcare interventions using inadequately defined outcomes or invalid measures will in turn produce results that lack validity. This paper explores a number of such issues concerning the concept of QoL and the way it is measured.

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Articles
Information
The Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , 1999 , pp. 69 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

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