scholarly journals Quality of Life Theory I. The IQOL Theory: An Integrative Theory of the Global Quality of Life Concept

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1030-1040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soren Ventegodt ◽  
Joav Merrick ◽  
Niels Jorgen Andersen

Quality of life (QOL) means a good life and we believe that a good life is the same as living a life with a high quality. This paper presents the theoretical and philosophical framework of the Danish Quality of Life Survey, and of the SEQOL, QOL5, and QOL1 questionnaires.The notion of a good life can be observed from subjective to the objective, where this spectrum incorporates a number of existing quality of life theories. We call this spectrum the integrative quality-of-life (IQOL) theory and discuss the following aspects in this paper: well being, satisfaction with life, happiness, meaning in life, the biological information system (�balance�), realizing life potential, fulfillment of needs, and objective factors.The philosophy of life outlined in this paper tries to measure the global quality of life with questions derived from the integrative theory of the quality of life. The IQOL theory is an overall theory or meta-theory encompassing eight more factual theories in a subjective-existential-objective spectrum. Other philosophies of life can stress other aspects of life, but by this notion of introducing such an existential depth into the health and social sciences, we believe to have taken a necessary step towards a new humility and respect for the richness and complexity of life.

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 972-991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soren Ventegodt ◽  
Joav Merrick ◽  
Niels Jorgen Andersen

The Danish Quality of Life Survey is based on the philosophy of life known as the integrative quality-of-life (IQOL) theory. It consists of eight different quality-of-life concepts, ranging from the superficially subjective via the deeply existential to the superficially objective (well being, satisfaction with life, happiness, meaning in life, biological order, realizing life potential, fulfillment of needs, and objective factors [ability of functioning and fulfilling societal norms]).This paper presents the work underlying the formulation of the theories of a good life and how these theories came to be expressed in a comprehensive, multidimensional, generic questionnaire for the evaluation of the global quality of life � SEQOL (self-evaluation of quality of life) � presented in full length in this paper. The instruments and theories on which the Quality of Life Survey was based are constantly being updated. It is an on-going process due to aspects such as human development, language, and culture. We arrived at eight rating scales for the quality of life that, guided by the IQOL theory, were combined into a global and generic quality-of-life rating scale. This was simplified to the validated QOL5 with only five questions, made for use in clinical databases. Unfortunately, the depth of human existence is to some extent lost in QOL5.We continue to aim towards greater simplicity, precision, and depth in the questions in order to explore the depths of human existence. We have not yet found a final form that enables us to fully rate the quality of life in practice. We hope that the several hundred questions we found necessary to adequately implement the theories of the Quality of Life Survey can be replaced by far fewer; ideally, only eight questions representing the eight component theories. These eight ideal questions have not yet been evaluated, and therefore they should not form the basis of a survey. However, the perspective is clear. If eight simple questions can accurately rate the quality of life as well as its depth, we have found an instrument of immense practical scope.


2010 ◽  
pp. 206-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Patricia Valencia ◽  
Gladys Eugenia Canaval ◽  
Diana Marín ◽  
Carmen J. Portillo

Antecedents: The Human Immunodeficiency Virus is currently considered a chronic disease; hence, quality of life is an important goal for those suffering the disease or living with someone afflicted by the virus. Objectives: We sought to measure the quality of life in individuals living with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome virus and establish its relationship with socio-demographic and clinical variables. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a sample of 137 HIV-infected individuals attending three healthcare institutions in the city of Cali, Colombia. Quality of life was measured via the HIV/AIDS-Targeted Quality of Life (HAT-QoL) instrument. The descriptive analyses included mean and standard deviation calculations. To determine the candidate variables, we used the student t test and the Pearson correlation. The response variable in the multiple linear regression was the score for quality of life. Results: Some 27% of the sample were women and 3% were transgender; the mean age of the sample was 35 + 10.2 years; 88% had some type of health insurance; 27% had been diagnosed with AIDS, and 64% were taking antiretroviral medications at the time of the study. Quality of life was measured through a standard scale with scores from 0 to 100. Participants’ global quality of life mean was 59 + 17.8. The quality-of-life dimensions with the highest scores were sexual function, satisfaction with the healthcare provider, and satisfaction with life. The highest quality-of-life scores were obtained by participants who received antiretroviral therapy, had health insurance, lower symptoms of depression, low frequency and intensity of symptoms, and no prior reports of sexual abuse. Eight variables explained 53% of the variability of the global quality of life. Conclusions: Those receiving antiretroviral therapy and who report fewer symptoms best perceived their quality of life. Implications for practice: Healthcare providers, especially nursing professional face a challenge in caring to alleviate symptoms and contribute to improving the quality of life of their patients.


2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (20) ◽  
pp. 4202-4208 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.G.E.M. de Boer ◽  
J.J.B. van Lanschot ◽  
J.W. van Sandick ◽  
J.B.F. Hulscher ◽  
P.F.M. Stalmeier ◽  
...  

PurposeTo assess 3 years of quality of life in patients with esophageal cancer in a randomized trial comparing limited transhiatal resection with extended transthoracic resection.Patients and MethodsQuality-of-life questionnaires were sent at baseline and at 5 weeks; 3, 6, 9, and 12 months; and 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3 years after surgery. Physical and psychological symptoms, activity level, and global quality of life were assessed with the disease-specific Rotterdam Symptom Checklist. Generic quality of life was measured with the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-20.ResultsA total of 199 patients participated. Physical symptoms and activity level declined after the operation and gradually returned toward baseline within the first year (P < .01). Psychological well-being consistently improved after baseline (P < .01), whereas global quality of life showed a small initial decline followed by continuous gradual improvement (P < .01). Quality of life stabilized in the second and third year. Three months after the operation, patients in the transhiatal esophagectomy group (n = 96) reported fewer physical symptoms (P = .01) and better activity levels (P < .01) than patients in the transthoracic group (n = 103), but no differences were found at any other measurement point. For psychological symptoms and global quality of life, no differences were found at any follow-up measurement. A similar pattern was found for generic quality of life.ConclusionNo lasting differences in quality of life of patients who underwent either transhiatal or transthoracic resection were found. Compared with baseline, quality of life declined after the operation but was restored within a year in both groups.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayse Berivan BAKAN ◽  
Asuman GURAKSIN

Background: When people face health problems, their life satisfaction levels and social relations could be ruined. When it comes to an eerie, deadly and chronic disease like cancer, the individual is much more likely to be affected by it.Objective: This descriptive study aims to identify quality of life and level of social support and the affecting factors in cancer patients.Methods: The sample included 170 patients who applied to Internal Diseases, Radiation Oncology, Thorax diseases clinics and Chemotherapy polyclinic in a university hospital in Turkey between March and August, 2005, who met the research criteria, and who volunteered to participate in the study. The sample represented 20 % of the target population. Data were collected through SF-36 Quality of Life Scale and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support.Results: The patients’ Global Quality of Life mean score was found 38.67 ± 13.64, and mean score for the Perceived Social Support was found 59.19 ± 17.5. Global Quality of Life score was higher in those who underwent an operation and who received ambulatory health care. Although Global Quality of Life was not influenced by the gender variable, male patients’ level of well-being was found to be higher. Perceived Social Support total score was found to be higher in those who knew about their disease. Family support was found to be higher in those who were married and who lived in town; it was found to be low in those who had low socio-economic level and who received inpatient treatment. Friend support was found to be high in those who knew about their disease.Conclusion: There was a linear relationship between Perceived Social Support and Quality of Life. It is recommended that more studies with wider groups of participants would shed more light to the issue of identifying quality of life, social support level and the relationships between them in cancer patients.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 950-958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Trine Flensborg-Madsen ◽  
Niels Jørgen Andersen ◽  
Joav Merrick

A prospective cohort study (Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort 1959-61) of 7,222 persons was used in order to explore the association between the social and health situation during pregnancy and the global quality of life (QOL) of the adult child 31-33 years later. Two sets of questionnaires were used with one filled out by physicians during pregnancy and one filled out by the adult children 31-33 years later. The questionnaires included mother's situation during pregnancy and global QOL of the child at follow-up: Well-being, life satisfaction, happiness, fulfilment of needs, experience of life’s temporal and spatial domains, expression of life’s potentials and objective measures. The only indicators to have clear connections with a reduced quality of life were the cases of mother's with syphilis (8.5%), mother's congenital malformations (8.8%), low social group (6.9%) and failing contraception (3.8%). The results obtained repudiate the common notion and hypothesis that the mother's situation during pregnancy is highly important for the quality of life that the child experience as an adult. This suggest that the aspects important for quality of life later on are not found solely in early conditions, but instead more dependent on later attitude towards life of that specific person.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026921632110103
Author(s):  
Marco Warth ◽  
Friederike Koehler ◽  
Martin Brehmen ◽  
Martin Weber ◽  
Hubert J Bardenheuer ◽  
...  

Background: Awareness for the importance of psychological and spiritual needs in patients with terminal diseases has increased in recent years, but randomized trials on the effects of psychosocial interventions are still rare. Aim: To investigate the efficacy of the “Song of Life” music therapy intervention regarding the emotional and psycho-spiritual dimensions of quality of life. Design: Patients were randomly assigned to either “Song of Life” or a relaxation intervention. “Song of Life” is a novel three-session music therapy intervention working with a biographically meaningful song. Primary outcome was the improvement in psychological quality of life. Secondary outcomes included spiritual well-being, ego-integrity, momentary distress, and global quality of life and the explorative assessment of treatment satisfaction (patient and family member version). Intention-to-treat analysis was conducted including adjustment for multiple testing in secondary outcomes. Setting/participants: Between December 2018 and August 2020, 104 patients receiving specialized palliative care were recruited from two palliative care wards. Results: No significant differences were found regarding psychological and global quality of life, but “Song of Life” participants reported significantly higher spiritual well-being ( p = 0.04) and ego-integrity ( p < 0.01), as well as lower distress ( p = 0.05) than patients in the control group. Both patients’ and family members’ treatment satisfaction was higher after “Song of Life” with large between-group effect sizes on items asking for meaningfulness ( d = 0.96) and importance ( d = 1.00). Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that “Song of Life” is an effective and meaningful biographical music therapy intervention to facilitate psycho-spiritual integration in terminally ill patients. Trial Registration: German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS)—DRKS00015308 (date of registration: September 7th 2018).


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 388-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja S. Sommer ◽  
Karen Trier ◽  
Jette Vibe-Petersen ◽  
Karl B. Christensen ◽  
Malene Missel ◽  
...  

Introduction: Surgical resection in patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may be associated with significant morbidity, functional limitations, and decreased quality of life. Objectives: The objective is to present health-related quality of life (HRQoL) changes over time before and 1 year after surgery in patients with NSCLC participating in a rehabilitation program. Methods: Forty patients with NSCLC in disease stage I to IIIa, referred for surgical resection at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery RT, Rigshospitalet, were included in the study. The rehabilitation program comprised supervised group exercise program, 2 hours weekly for 12 weeks, combined with individual counseling. The study endpoints were self-reported HRQoL (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Lung, European Organization for Research and Treatment in Cancer–Quality of Life Questionnaire-QLQ-C30, Short-Form-36) and self-reported distress, anxiety, depression, and social support (National Comprehensive Cancer Network Distress Thermometer, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support), measured presurgery, postintervention, 6 months, and 1 year after surgery. Results: Forty patients were included, 73% of whom completed rehabilitation. Results on emotional well-being ( P < .0001), global quality of life ( P = .0032), and mental health component score ( P = .0004) showed an overall statistically significant improvement during the study. Conclusion: This feasibility study demonstrated that global quality of life, mental health, and emotional well-being improved significantly during the study, from time of diagnosis until 1 year after resection, in patients with NSCLC participating in rehabilitation.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 933-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Trine Flensborg-Madsen ◽  
Niels Jørgen Andersen ◽  
Joav Merrick

This paper presents a prospective cohort study, where we explore associations between pregnancy, delivery and the global quality of life (QOL) of the adult child 31-33 years later. The data is from the Copenhagen Perinatal Birth Cohort 1959-61 using two sets of questionnaires send to 7,222 persons: one filled out by physicians during pregnancy and delivery, while the follow-up questionnaire was completed by the adult children 31-33 years later. The main outcome measures were objective factors describing pregnancy and delivery along with global quality of life, including: Well-being, life satisfaction, happiness, fulfilment of needs, experience of life's temporal and spatial domains, expression of life's potentials and objective measures. Results showed two main factors in pregnancy that seemed to be associated with a reduced quality of life for the child 31-33 years later: the mother's smoking habits and the mother's medication–especially painkillers and different psychopharmacological drugs with the association being most prevalent early in pregnancy. Considering what can and do go wrong during the various stages of labour and delivery and considering how few connections we found between the factors examined and the later global QOL, it seems that the child is remarkably resilient to external influences during pregnancy and delivery concerned with global QOL, as an adult.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Eduardo Candel-Parra ◽  
María Pilar Córcoles-Jiménez ◽  
Victoria Delicado-Useros ◽  
Antonio Hernández-Martínez ◽  
Milagros Molina-Alarcón

Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that implies a progressive and invalidating functional organic disorder, which continues to evolve till the end of life and causes different mental and physical alterations that influence the quality of life of those affected. Objective: To determine the relationship between motor and nonmotor symptoms and the quality of life of persons with PD. Methods: An analytic, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted with patients with different degrees of PD in the Albacete Health district. The estimated sample size required was 155 patients. The instruments used for data collection included a purpose-designed questionnaire and “Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire” (PDQ-39), which measures eight dimensions and has a global index where a higher score indicates a worse quality of life. A descriptive and bivariate analysis was conducted (SPSS® IBM 24.0). Ethical aspects: informed consent and anonymized data. Results: A strong correlation was found between the number of motor and nonmotor symptoms and global health-related quality of life and the domains mobility, activities of daily living, emotional well-being, cognitive status, and pain (p < 0.05). Receiving pharmacological treatment and taking more than four medicines per day was significantly associated with a worse quality of life (p < 0.05). Patients who had undergone surgical treatment did not show better global quality of life (p = 0.076). Conclusions: All nonmotor symptoms and polypharmacy were significantly associated with a worse global quality of life.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 2187
Author(s):  
Omrit Feldman ◽  
Eran Goldstien ◽  
Benjamin Rolnik ◽  
Ariel B. Ganz ◽  
Shahar Lev-Ari

Stuttering is a speech disorder that can cause disturbances in the timing and flow of speech. In addition to being a communication disorder, stuttering is often accompanied by a reduction in the quality of life and has impacts on social status, mental well-being, self-acceptance, and the chances of integration into the labor market. The Inquiry Based Stress Reduction (IBSR) program, developed in the United States by Byron Katie in 1986, is the clinical application of “The Work” method (Thework.com) and represents an emerging mindfulness and cognitive-reframing method. IBSR has been demonstrated to improve mental health and well-being in adults and may alleviate psychological and psychosocial symptoms of stuttering. The purpose of this trial was to examine the effect of a 12-week IBSR intervention on the overall stuttering experience and indicators of anxiety, psychological flexibility, and well-being among adults who stutter (AWS). This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial. Participants were randomized to IBSR (n = 28) and control (n = 28) groups. Validated questionnaires of overall stuttering experience (OASES-A), anxiety (STAI), psychological flexibility (PFQ), and satisfaction with life (SWLS) were completed before, after, and one month after the intervention. An intention-to-treat approach was implemented for analysis. Our results show that participants in the IBSR intervention group exhibited a greater improvement in their overall stuttering experience as compared to the control group, as well as in general information on stuttering awareness and perception, reactions to stuttering, communication in daily situations, and quality of life. In addition, we found a greater reduction in anxiety levels and an increase in satisfaction-with-life scores in the IBSR group. These results indicate that IBSR can improve the overall stuttering experience.


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