Measuring quality of life

Abstract

This paper considers quality of life (QOL) to be a global, yet unidimensional, subjective assessment of one's satisfaction with life. This conceptualization is consistent with viewing QOL assessments as resulting from the interaction of multiple causal dimensions, but it is inconsistent with proposals to limit QOL to health-related quality of life (HRQOL). We test the unidimensional yet global conceptualization of QOL using data from coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients. The Self-Anchoring Striving Scale (SASS) and four other indicators derived from the literature, all seemed to function as indicators of a single concept (QOL) that was repeatedly drawn upon as the patients determined their responses to these indicators. However, only about half the variance in each indicator was attributable to that common QOL source. Several structural equation models are used to assess whether the superior performance of the Life 3 indicator is an artifact of the repetition of an item within this indicator. The data convincingly indicate that the superior performance is not a memory artifact, and that even the repetition of an identically worded item prodded the patients into drawing yet again upon the same QOL factor that grounded all the other measures.