Final Activity Report Summary - EQOL (Enhancing Quality of Life)
Quality of Life (QoL) research, particularly in healthcare, is a major topic for the individual patient as well as for health care policy reasons. The main focus so far in QoL research is restricted to instrument development and their application, for instance assessing the impact of medical treatment regimes on QoL. However the nature of QoL and the process of its judgment are only beginning to be better understood. Questions such as - how people construct their assessment about their own QoL - remain largely unclear.
The overall aim of this project is to develop a framework to highlight the possibilities to improve the QoL of individuals in the health care setting in Europe.
The project objectives based on the previous 2 year Marie Curie Fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons (Prof. H. McGee) were to investigate:
1) Response shift: response shift refers to a change in the meaning of QoL. Response-shift can be seen as a nuisance variable in research or as a phenomena worthy of considerations as part of the dynamic nature of human experience.
2) Psychological well-being: previous research has focused on the relationship between negative emotions (e.g. depression) and QoL. However, less is known about the relationship between positive emotions and QoL.
3) Heuristics: mental short cuts used in cognitive evaluations such as judgment about QoL are underinvestigated.
400 medical students and 100 cardiology patients have been approached successfully to investigate the above topics. Currently the main analysis of the data is undergoing. So far the data shows that individuals do use mental short cuts, such as availability heuristics to come to a judgment about their individual QoL. Depending on the framing of questions to assess QoL, people tend to make significant different judgments.
Psychological well-being and QoL seems to be closely related, however they can be viewed as distinct concepts. Psychological well-being is necessary to develop and maintain a good QoL. Therefore it is not sufficient enough to be free from negative emotions (e.g. depression), it is rather also important to have good psychological well-being to devlop or maintain a good QoL.
The overall aim of this project is to develop a framework to highlight the possibilities to improve the QoL of individuals in the health care setting in Europe.
The project objectives based on the previous 2 year Marie Curie Fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons (Prof. H. McGee) were to investigate:
1) Response shift: response shift refers to a change in the meaning of QoL. Response-shift can be seen as a nuisance variable in research or as a phenomena worthy of considerations as part of the dynamic nature of human experience.
2) Psychological well-being: previous research has focused on the relationship between negative emotions (e.g. depression) and QoL. However, less is known about the relationship between positive emotions and QoL.
3) Heuristics: mental short cuts used in cognitive evaluations such as judgment about QoL are underinvestigated.
400 medical students and 100 cardiology patients have been approached successfully to investigate the above topics. Currently the main analysis of the data is undergoing. So far the data shows that individuals do use mental short cuts, such as availability heuristics to come to a judgment about their individual QoL. Depending on the framing of questions to assess QoL, people tend to make significant different judgments.
Psychological well-being and QoL seems to be closely related, however they can be viewed as distinct concepts. Psychological well-being is necessary to develop and maintain a good QoL. Therefore it is not sufficient enough to be free from negative emotions (e.g. depression), it is rather also important to have good psychological well-being to devlop or maintain a good QoL.