Open AccessMEASURING PATIENTS' EXPERIENCED QUALITY OF LIFE: THE APPLICATION OF CONTENT ANALYSIS SCALES IN HEALTH CARE
Author(s) -
Viney Linda L.,
Westbrook Mary T.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
community health studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 0314-9021
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1981.tb00731.x
Subject(s) - hostility , feeling , anxiety , rehabilitation , content (measure theory) , psychology , quality of life (healthcare) , content analysis , phenomenology (philosophy) , clinical psychology , medicine , psychotherapist , social psychology , psychiatry , physical therapy , mathematical analysis , social science , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology , sociology
Summary Several scales that are useful in research concerning patients' experienced (as distinct from observed) quality of life have been developed. They use content analysis and so can be applied to any recorded verbal communication from individual patients. They provide indices of psychoanalysis‐based concepts of anxiety and hostility, as well as of positive feelings. Whether patients experience themselves as helpless or in control of a situation and whether patients experience themselves as having social support—phenomenology‐based concepts—are also measured. Some examples of applications of these scales in health care are given together with data from 381 patients and ex‐patients. Uses of the scales include obtaining information about common patterns of patient experiences, psychologically “at risk” patients, factors which precipitate surgery visits and patients' reaction to specific illnesses and treatments. They can also be employed in evaluations of rehabilitation, treatment and prevention programs.