Quality of life assessment and drug abuse treatment program evaluation

Quality of life assessment is used as an outcome measure technique to evaluate a central medical intake (CMI) unit for drug treatment programs. While significant improvements across time are evident in both perceived well-being and in the standard federal funding criteria, no differences are observed between those referred into treatment by the CMI and those entering directly. Moreover, the improvements observed are the same regardless of whether the patient stayed in treatment or not.     

A moral vision: human dignity in the eyes of the founders of sociology

The case argued in this paper is not that the concerns of the founders of sociology are uniformly and in every particular still our own (Runciman, 2008), but that the concepts and methods used to address just one of their concerns were both ground breaking and of enduring value (Shilling and Mellor, 2001, 2011, for example, make a similar claim). Such a concern focused on the kind of morality grounded in a capitalist social order and, by implication, how it might be theorized. This generated in the process the uniquely sociological operationalization of what had seemed hitherto a philosophical concept: human dignity, along with the freedom and autonomy that attend it. Certainly, the priorities differed in each of the contributions to this endeavour but, in coming at the problem from different standpoints, the concept of dignity came to appear more rounded, more substantive and more relevant to the human condition in all its historical specificity. Quite crucially, there is also in these sources from the classical period of sociology an intimation of method: both the way in which human dignity is to be ‘perceived’ within an inter‐personal dialectic at a micro‐level and, at a macro‐level, how we can discern that dignity transcends artificial confinement by any one aspect of life (be it economic, political or cultural).¹     

Quality of life indicators and program evaluation

Social indicators and program evaluation research have much in common. Quality of life work specifically raises the question of objective versus subjective variables, aggregate data versus distributional and individual issues, and the reference standards used in judgment and evaluation decisions. This article presents perspectives on these issues from the orientation of quality of life research and proposes that these approaches have relevance for program evaluation work.     

Quality of life: Efficiency,equity and freedom in the United States and Scandinavia

The article discusses three basic elements of quality of life and seeks to illuminate these from two cultural perspectives. The elements are 1) social equity (including issues like virtues, justice, fairness, equal moral value, human rights, resource ethics etc. and 2) efficiency (including issues like economic efficiency, productivity, material well being, etc.) 3) freedom (including liberty, pursuit of happiness, individual choice, exit and voice options, etc.). Concerns for social equity, efficiency and freedom are at the heart of the political debate in many countries. In this article, we will look at some of the ways in which the Scandinavian cultures and the American culture view these basic elements of quality of life. It is argued that social equity drives efficiency and freedom of choice.     

Quality of life and comparative risk in Houston

Houston Environmental Foresight, an urban region comparative risk assessment, demonstrated the importance of process as well as analytic methodology. These features are best illustrated in the work of its Socioeconomic Subpanel, which assessed environmental risks to economic well-being and quality of life. Several issues are raised by the process and methods used by the subpanel. Some of these issues could be addressed through national research on comparative risk methods; other issues are most likely to be addressed through the incremental improvements of future projects.     

Quality of life in the Fourth Age: exercise experiences of nursing home residents

Life in the Fourth Age has been typified as a time of continued functional decline and reduced quality of life. Exercise might positively affect this experience. This study explored the exercise experiences of nursing home residents age 86-99 years who participated in a 6-month exercise intervention. An interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted. Twenty-one interviews were held with 14 residents at baseline and 7 residents at follow-up. Although their expectations were initially conservative, by the end of the intervention participants noted improved quality of life through better mobility, decreased fear of falling, and feelings of achievement and success. They valued the program as an opportunity to do something for themselves, to add something to their weekly routine, to meet other people, and to be more active generally. The professionalism of the exercise instructor appears to have been critical, balancing principles of safe and effective practice with the need to ensure that participants had fun in a supportive environment.     

Quality of life in the evaluation of community support systems

As a result of the authors' experience in conducting an evaluation of the community support system (CSS) program in New York State, they have identified five reasons for focusing on quality of life (QOL) as a desired outcome for programs for the chronically ill. These reasons are presented and problems in QOL evaluative research are discussed. Psychological indicators are distinguished from social indicators of QOL, and two methods of operationalizing perceived QOL, the psychological well-being and life domains methods, are examined. A conceptual model is presented and the results of an exploratory study of the QOL of 118 chronic psychiatric patients receiving CSS services are presented.     

Quality of life in obese postmenopausal women

The aim of this review was to identify the ways in which obesity affects the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of postmenopausal women. This was considered important because a growing body of literature has identified obesity as a significant predictor for a poor psychological wellbeing and negative HRQoL, particularly in women, and because during the transition through the menopause women tend to accumulate more body weight. After searching eight electronic databases, only nine papers appeared meaningful. Although a meta-analysis was not possible, we found that a body mass index (BMI) > 30 kg/m2 was associated with a poor HRQoL in postmenopausal women; particularly in the areas associated with physical functioning, energy and vitality, and health perceptions. Thus, clinical management of obese postmenopausal women should focus on weight reduction and exercise in an attempt to improve wellbeing in these areas. However, the paucity of research, the different instruments chosen to measure HRQoL and the methodological limitations of the studies identified, prevented firm conclusions being made about whether the relationship between BMI and HRQoL is linear in postmenopausal women. Further research is needed to explore this relationship; particularly in comparison with underweight postmenopausal women and obese premenopausal women, where a few papers have identified these women as having a worse HRQoL than their obese postmenopausal counterparts. Other measures of central adiposity, including waist circumference and waist-hip ratio are recommended as useful supplemental measures to BMI in future studies.     

Quality of life among lifetime victimized men

Quality of life was compared for lifetime victimized (n = 353) and nonvictimized men (n = 167) for demographic and quality of life variables by a cross-sectional design. The univariate analyses showed that victims compared to nonvictims had a lower quality of life, were younger, more often had upper secondary school education, and were more often blue-collar/low white-collar workers, on student allowances, on unemployment, financially strained, and smokers. The regressions revealed that unemployment, financial strain, smoking, depression, and home/public abuse were associated with reduced quality of life among victimized men. Being a blue-collar/low/intermediate white-collar worker and social support were related to increased quality of life. This study may have provided new insights into the experiences of quality of life of victimized men.     

The Syrian corpse: the politics of dignity in visual and media representations of the Syrian revolution*

This essay explores the material, phenomenological and political meaning of the Syrian corpse and the question of its dignity as represented in a series of media and visual outputs from 2011 to the present. The essay begins by arguing that the violence in Syria now targets the dead as much as the living. As such, the essay highlights the forms of ‘necroviolence’ that the Syrian corpse has been subjected to: mistreatment, erasure of markers of identity, denial of burial, mutilation and ultimately an attempt to erase it from memory. The essay concludes by arguing that the Syrian corpse is not merely the passive subject or victim of ‘necroviolence’ but can also become the paradoxical agent of what we might call ‘postmortem resistance’.     

Finding dignity in a landscape of fear: enslaved women and girls at the University of Virginia

From its inception, the University of Virginia was a destination for enslaved men, women, and children who were forced to leave their families to build and sustain the needs of this newly founded institution. This article explores the unique experiences of the enslaved women and girls who labored at the University of Virginia, and highlights the distinct intersectionality of their oppression in terms of their race, class, and gender. Their stories showcase the particular challenges that arose while enslaved at a university filled with young privileged white men, bringing attention to the historic and continual struggles of black women throughout history.     

Discourse, upstream public engagement and the governance of human life extension research

Important scientific, ethical and sociological debates are emerging over the trans-humanist goal to achieve therapeutic treatments to ‘cure’ the debilitation of age-related illness and extend the healthy life span of individuals through “interventive biogerontological research”. The scientific and moral discourses surrounding this contentious scientific field are mapped out, followed by a normative argument favouring ‘strong’ deliberative democratic control of human life extension research. This proposal incorporates insights from constructive and participatory technology assessment, upstream public engagement and back-casting analysis; to outline a programme of participatory approaches to encourage two-way dialogue between scientific and citizen perspectives, and foster the long-term deliberative democratic governance of this developing field.     

Using NTEE to classify non-profit organisations: an assessment of human service and regional applications

The National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) constitutes a major contribution to the field of non-profit research, but is beset by conceptual and practical problems. The application of the taxonomy to the list of charitable organisations recognised by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is also an important resource for research, although it has limitations as well, especially for industry-specific and regional analyses. Using survey data from the Chicago metropolitan region, I show that regional estimates for human services based on only those charitable organisations which are required to file tax returns may miss over 40 per cent of the total number of organisations and under-estimate total revenues by almost half. Finally, I point to conceptual, technical and institutional challenges that must be addressed if the NTEE is to gain maximum utility.