Thank you so much Mumtaz for your immediate respond. I believe you must be one of the expert in research area. Glad to know you and sharing knowledge together.

Hi Sharifah,

This is an interesting question. As you've much of the discussion has surrounded health-related QOL and there is a tendency to view QOL as the same concept as HRQOL, but they are distinct. If anything HRQOL can be viewed as a subset of QOL. Here are some resources that may also be helpful to you.

-US National Library of Medicine definition of "quality of life" (one of the medical subject headings): A generic concept reflecting concern with the modification and enhancement of life attributes, e.g., physical, political, moral and social environment; the overall condition of a human life. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/?term=quality+of+life

-Quality of Life and Pharmacoeconomics (by Cramer and Spilker; Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven Publishers; 1998) - the book is mainly about HRQOL, but the first chapter provides a nice overview of QOL in general; they discuss the idea that there are 4 domains to QOL: physical status/functional abilities, psychological status/well being, social interactions, and economic/vocational status; QOL is the product of an individuals' objective and subjective evaluations of these domains and the value they place on them

-Quality of Life in Health Promotion and Health Behavior (edited by Renwick, Brown, and Nagler; Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 1996) - this book focuses on HRQOL, but the early chapters provide a nice theoretical and historical perspective on QOL from a social science standpoint; it also provides a nice graphical conceptualization of QOL

-The Quality of American Life (by Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers; New York: Russell Sage Foundation; 1976) - this book is written from a social science perspective and is all about the larger QOL issue; there are some mentions of the physical/health-related side, but that is not the focus; it is an "older" book, so it may be difficult to find

-"The Quality of Life" by William Aiken (in Applied Philosophy; 1982;1:26-36) - this provides a deeper philosophical examination from a social science approach.

As with the other respondent, I can try to get copies of some of these things if you are having trouble.

Best of luck!

Spencer

This is good Spencer, thank you so much. I appreciate it a lot.

It seems most of the studies of the definition ware made long time ago. According to certain research requirement, it is a requisite for us to get the latest articles as short as 3 years back only, for example. But then, most of these articles already provide precise explanation of the meaning and yet found the latest one on the new QoL definition according to our current condition or environment.

Yes, it is very interesting since we try to associate a lot of IV to this QoL as DV...therefore we need to scope the DV itself specifically on what base. I will go through all the references suggested. I believe it will help me a lot. Surely, i will let you know if there is problem accessing these resources.

Thank you very much Spencer. Glad to know you too.