Quality of life as a mediator of leisure activity and perceived health among older women

Despite consistent evidence to suggest that participating in leisure is associated with perceived health status among older adults, there have been few attempts to determine the possible underlying mechanisms in this relationship, including the role of quality of life (QoL). This study examined the role of perceived quality of life in the relationship between leisure and perceived health in older women. Correlations, regression, and mediation analysis were conducted on data from the Woman’s College Alumnae Women’s Health Study. Results indicate that QoL partially mediates the relationship between leisure and perceived health in older women. Findings further establish the link between leisure and perceived health with QoL playing an important role in the relationship.     

Quality of life

What is sought is a definition of Quality of Life (QOL). Other authors have defined QOL in terms of actual happiness or perceived satisfaction/dissatisfaction. The present paper defines it not as a summation of the individual happiness-states of all members of a society, but as the obtaining of the necessary conditions for happiness throughout a society. These conditions being necessary not sufficient, high QOL is compatible with actual unhappiness. The necessary conditions in question are identified with the availability of means for the satisfaction of human needs rather than human desires, and a Maslowian analysis of the former is proposed in default of ay more satisfactory analysis. The paper concludes with a discussion of how maximizing needsatisfaction (as opposed to want-satisfaction) automatically guarantees fair distribution of needed goods. This ensures that in at least some respects high-QOL societies are societies characterized by justice.     

Quality of life in a European Perspective: The EUROMODULE as a New Instrument for Comparative Welfare Research

In this article, a new survey instrument for comparative welfare researchand social reporting is described, the EUROMODULE. It has been set up inintensive discussions among experts from several nations engaged inquality of life research and social reporting. By combining indicatorsof objective living conditions, subjective well-being, and quality ofsociety, with this new survey central aspects of the quality of life ofEuropean citizens can be investigated. The EUROMODULE initiative aimsat strengthening efforts to monitor and systematically analyze thecurrent state and the changes in living conditions and quality of lifein Europe in a comparative perspective. So far, data for eightEuropean countries are available.     

Quality of life in Thailand

Quality of life is an increasingly important issue in developing countries in general and in Thailand in particular. This study investigates mainly the level of satisfaction of Thais with their lives in general and with various aspects/domains of their lives. Based on the sample of Thais living in Bangkok Metropolitan area, the results of this study reveal that Thais are somewhat pleased with their lives in general and tend to be more satisfied with personal domains of life rather than environmental domains of life. It is also found that two significant contributors to Thais' quality of life are economic well-being and better education.     

Quality of life,intelligence and mood

We investigated the relationship between quality of life (QOL), general ability and current mood in a sample of young men (N=269, mean age 24.9 years). Intelligence (verbal, spatial and mathematical) and technical ability were uncorrelated with QOL. Current mood such as pleasure, anger, sadness, boredom correlated firmly with QOL. The paper concludes that intelligence seems to be a variable of minor interest for QOL-studies.     

Quality of life and sexual function in postmenopausal women

This study examined the relationship between quality of life (QoL) and sexual function among postmenopausal women. As a cross-sectional study, it was conducted among 405 postmenopausal women selected using a multistage sampling method. The data-collection tools were the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire, the WHO Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire, and a researcher-administered questionnaire. Sexual dysfunction was observed in 61% of the participants. The total scores of FSFI had a positive correlation with the WHOQOL-BREF total scores and all QoL domain scores. Therefore, sexual function needs to be covered by health-care packages aiming to improve postmenopausal women’s QoL.     

Quality of life perceptions in two cultures

This paper reports and analyzes the quality of life perceptions held by the inhabitants of two culturally different but demographically similar cities: Springfield, Illinois and Aix-en-Provence, France. Although the Springfielders expressed greater satisfaction than the Aixois in virtually all the life domains covered by the research, the areas of relative satisfaction and dissatisfaction were remarkably similar in the two cities; furthermore, the domains in which the French indicated the least satisfaction were generally ones where their objective quality of life conditions were inferior to those of their American counterparts. Multiple regression techniques are used to trace the relative contribution of domain satisfactions and demographic characteristics in explaining respondents' comparative life enjoyment and reported levels of happiness.     

Quality of life research: New challenges and new opportunities

In recent years there has been growing interest in applied quality of life research and involving the community in the research process with the ultimate goal of improving the social and economic circumstances of people. Increasingly, community-university partnerships are seen as an effective vehicle to achieve this. The Community-University Institute for Social Research (CUISR) based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada is a successful example of such as partnership. CUISR’s quality of life module has conducted extensive research in Saskatoon and has been active in engaging the community in developing strategies and setting priorities for action. This paper serves as a brief introduction to the Special Edition of Social Indicators Research. It provides the context for the collection of articles contained in the publication and outlines its organization.     

Quality of life indicators: A preliminary investigation

Concern over the ‘quality of life’ in the United States seems to have increased proportionally with technological advancement and growth in material wealth. Growing public interest in social, economic, political and environmental conditions has led to the search for indicators which adequately reflect the overall ‘health’ of the nation and its citizens' well-being. This paper developed a systematic methodology for assessing social, economic, political, and environmental indicators to reflect the quality of life in the U.S. Nine indicators, including Individual Status, Individual Equality, Living Conditions, Agriculture, Technology, Economic Status, Education, Health and Welfare and State and Local Governments were compiled from more than 100 variables for 50 states and the District of Columbia. Based primarily on 1970 data, QOL indexes were generalized and the states were rated. Comparisons among similar studies were made and analyses among indicators were also performed.     

Quality of life indicators and health: Current status and emerging conceptions

Quality of life is an increasingly common theme in the health status and health promotion literatures. Six approaches that consider quality of life and health are reviewed. These are (a) health-related quality of life; (b) quality of life as social diagnosis in health promotion; (c) quality of life among persons with developmental disabilities; (d) quality of life as social indicators; (e) the Centre for Health Promotion (University of Toronto) model, and (f) Lindstrom's quality of life model. Each approach is considered as to its emphasis on objective or subjective indicators, individual or system-level measurement, value-laden or value-neutral assumptions, and potential relationship to social policy and social change goals. The links among the social indicators, quality of life, and health promotions areas are examined.     

Quality of life and city size: An exploratory study of Nigeria

This paper examines the variations in the quality of life at the relatively neglected inter-urban scale in a developing nation. Based on a sample survey of 3800 heads of households in Nigerian cities ranked into three categories: large, medium and small, the study found that level-of-living is related to city size, with the residents of large cities having a higher quality of life than those in the medium and small cities.     

Quality of life in rural areas: processes of divergence and convergence

In Germany, processes can be observed that have long been out of keeping with the principle of equality of opportunity. Unemployment is concentrated in the structurally weak peripheral areas, in Eastern Germany in particular; emigration of young and better-educated people to the West is not diminishing, but contrary to expectation is again on the increase; aging processes have set in already, and when it comes to the provision of infrastructure, e.g. in the field of professional training, some regions are already suffering from considerable problems. These difficulties are frequently interpreted as differences between East and West and are explained away as problems resulting from reunification, such as the deindustrialization and restructuring of the economy and the enormous decline in the birth rate in Eastern Germany. Although these problems cannot just be attributed to social transformation and the birth rate crisis alone, being subject to more general processes of intensified globalization and the aging of society, the increasing regional disparities are rarely considered in the overall context of regional development patterns throughout Germany. Moreover, the difficulty of even obtaining data for purposes of comparison generally means that an international yardstick is lacking when regional developments are analyzed. The present study investigates regional disparities over a period of time in the light of subjective and objective indicators of the quality of life for individuals. To this end, we make use of data from the Wohlfahrtssurvey [Welfare Survey] from 1978 to 2001, among other sources. On the basis of the Euromodule that has been established at the WZB, we compare current regional patterns in Germany with those in other European countries. This approach makes it possible to provide information on the scale of regional disparities in various different countries, and to identify privileged and handicapped regions with reference to standards of living and the sense of wellbeing. The study’s findings show that, in the past 25 years, welfare in Western Germany has evened out at a higher level, but currently a trend towards increasing economic disparity is discernible. In comparison with other European countries, on the other hand, the differences (regional differences) within Germany are comparatively slight.     

Quality of life in South Africa: Towards an instrument for the assessment of quality of life and basic needs

Conducting comparative quality of life research in a socio-economically and socio-politically divided society such as South Africa is methodologically challenging and worthwhile in that it provides a means for evaluating subtle social changes taking place. This is demonstrated on the basis of a study of perceptions of well-being involving white, Indian and black residents of Durban, South Africa. Survey findings generally reflected the differential social circumstances of the three groups represented in the sample, in particular it highlighted the materially underprivileged situation of Blacks in comparison to the other groups. Drawing upon the experience gained in the study, the rationale is given for developing a research instrument for measuring comparative qualities of life at the national level.     

Quality of life and charges in private old people's homes in Great Britain

Over half the residents in old people's homes in Britain have their fees wholly or partly paid from the public purse. Understandably, there is considerable concern that the fees charged should be reasonable in the light of the services and facilities provided. In a recent study, local authority registration officers attempted to relate important qualitative features of private homes to the fees they charged. Taken together, these features provide a measure of the quality of life in homes. Results indicate little relationship between the charges made by homes and the measures reflecting the quality of life for residents. On the other hand, however, it was evident that the quality of life was an important consideration when registration officers made an assessment of the reasonableness of charges in homes. In short, homes assessed as having reasonable charges received higher ratings on the qualitative features. Conversely, homes judged as charging too much were much more likely to be rated poorly.     

Quality of life declines in big and growing cities. Poverty in cities

The quality of life in developing countries during the first couple of decades after the Second World War was higher in cities than in small towns and villages. However, the relative advantage of city dwellers in developing countries has declined since the 1970s, with high-growth rate cities experiencing a more severe decline. Infant mortality levels in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s are as high in large cities as in the smallest towns and villages. In most developing regions, big city residents are increasingly disadvantaged, such that researchers and policymakers can no longer assume that the quality of life in urban areas is better than in rural areas. The urban transformation of the developing world is similar to the 19th century urbanization of now-developed countries, but today many more people are crowding into far bigger cities. Using survey information from 43 countries representing 63% of the developing world's urban population outside of China and India, Martin Brockerhoff of the Population Council and Ellen Brennan of the UN Population Division found that rapid population growth and big size have overwhelmed the capacity of cities to provide essential goods and services.     

Measuring the concept of marital quality as social indicators in urban China

The research reported in this article examines the theoretical and empirical dimensionality of marital quality in urban Chinese marriages. Using survey data from the People's Republic of China, the author carried out a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Results revealed that the quality of urban Chinese Marriages can be conceptualized as a two-factorial and multidimensional construct. To further validate and generalize this conceptualization, the very same CFA models were tested in both arranged and free choice marriages. The finding indicated that marital quality can be indeed measured by marital interaction, marital satisfaction, marital disagreement, marital problem, and marital instability indicators. This result is consistent with the marital quality literature in the United States.     

Appraising the Quality of Democracy as a Developmental Phenomenon: How South Koreans Appraise the Quality of Their Democracy

In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have made serious efforts to assess the quality of democracy from the perspective of ordinary citizens. Their research endeavors to date have all sought to distinguish democracies exclusively in terms of low to high levels of quality. Unlike these studies, which are solely concerned with the varying levels of democratic quality, this study offers a new conceptual framework that allows for discerning and monitoring its shifting patterns from electoral through liberal to civic quality. An analysis of the 2010 Korea Democracy Barometer survey confirms that the quality of democracy is, indeed, a developmental and multidimensional phenomenon. Furthermore, it reveals that ordinary citizens are capable of identifying its particular dimensions, and Korean democracy shows a significant deficit in two: the liberal and civic domains.