| dc.description.abstract | As medical and public health advances have led to enhanced treatments of existing diseases, and to delayed mortality, researchers have changed the way of examining health, looking beyond causes of mortality and morbidity and assessing the relationship of health to the quality of an individual life. The Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as "A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being not merely the absence of disease" and thus the measurement of health and health care effects must include the changes in the frequency and severity of diseases as well as an estimation of well-being after appraising improvement in the quality of life (QoL) related to health care. Although there are generally satisfactory ways of measuring the frequency and severity of diseases this is not the case in the measurement of well-being and QoL [1]. QoL is a global concept that has different philosophical, political and health-related definitions. WHO defines QoL as individuals' perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. This broad concept is affected by a person's physical health, psychological state, level of independence, social relationships, personal beliefs, and relationship to salient features of his environment [2]. When QoL is considered in the context of health and disease, it is commonly referred to as health-related quality of life (HRQoL), to differentiate it from other aspects of quality of life. Since health is a multidimensional concept, HRQoL is also multidimensional and incorporates domains related to the physical, mental and emotional, and social functioning of an individual (Table 26.1) [3]. © Springer-Verlag London 2015. | en |
