The Quality of Life Scale (QOLS): Reliability, Validity, and Utilization

I'm sure your doctor is not using this to determine the effectiveness of stroke interventions. As of 2003 there seems to be no use of it for stroke survivors. Unless our worthless stroke associations have done something since I bet no one cares about our Quality of Life. In fact its probably better if you just die, my ex-wife would have preferred that.
http://www.hqlo.com/content/1/1/60

Carol S Burckhardt^1* and Kathryn L Anderson²

• * Corresponding author: Carol S Burckhardt burckhac@ohsu.edu

Author Affiliations

¹ School of Nursing Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA
² School of Nursing, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, USA

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Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003, 1:60  doi:10.1186/1477-7525-1-60

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.hqlo.com/content/1/1/60

Received:	22 July 2003
Accepted:	23 October 2003
Published:	23 October 2003

© 2003 Burckhardt and Anderson; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.

Abstract

The Quality of Life Scale (QOLS), created originally by American psychologist John Flanagan in the 1970's, has been adapted for use in chronic illness groups. This paper reviews the development and psychometric testing of the QOLS. A descriptive review of the published literature was undertaken and findings summarized in the frequently asked questions format. Reliability, content and construct validity testing has been performed on the QOLS and a number of translations have been made. The QOLS has low to moderate correlations with physical health status and disease measures. However, content validity analysis indicates that the instrument measures domains that diverse patient groups with chronic illness define as quality of life. The QOLS is a valid instrument for measuring quality of life across patient groups and cultures and is conceptually distinct from health status or other causal indicators of quality of life.

Keywords:

Quality of Life Scale; QOLS; chronic illness outcomes; quality of life evaluation

Why assess Quality of Life in chronic illness?

Quality of life (QOL) measures have become a vital and often required part of health outcomes appraisal. For populations with chronic disease, measurement of QOL provides a meaningful way to determine the impact of health care when cure is not possible. Over the past 20 years, hundreds of instruments have been developed that purport to measure QOL [1]. With few exceptions, these instruments measure what Fayers and colleagues [2,3] have called causal indicators of QOL rather than QOL itself. Health care professionals need to be clear about the conceptual definition of QOL and not to confound it with functional status, symptoms, disease processes, or treatment side-effects [4-7]. Although the definition of QOL is still evolving, Revicki and colleagues define QOL as "a broad range of human experiences related to one's overall well-being. It implies value based on subjective functioning in comparison with personal expectations and is defined by subjective experiences, states and perceptions. Quality of life, by its very natures, is idiosyncratic to the individual, but intuitively meaningful and understandable to most people [[8], p. 888]." This definition denotes a meaning for QOL that transcends health. The Quality of Life Scale (QOLS) first developed by American psychologist, John Flanagan, [9,10] befits this definition of QOL. 

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