Quality of Life Indicators

A major study by the Centre for Health Promotion of the University of Toronto, published in 1997, defined Quality of Life as the degree to which a person enjoys the important possibilities of his or her life. Three categories of QOL were defined, each with three sub-categories, and based on same characteristics that make life good for all other (non-disabled) people. "Being" refers to aspects of the person, "Belonging" to aspects of how people fit with other people and places, and "Becoming" to aspects of daily activities that promote personal growth, development and adaptation to life. The QOL team surveyed a stratified sample of 504 men and women with developmental disabilities in 23 randomly-selected areas of Ontario in 1995. Quality of life for each individual, in each of 54 items, was assessed in three steps. Each item was assessed for degree of importance to participant’s life, then assessed for degree of enjoyment or satisfaction experienced by participant. Two other concepts were assessed: decision-making or the degree to which people make their own decisions and direct their own lives; and the opportunities that are available to people from which choices and decisions can be made. QOL was further assessed from three different perspectives: the participant’s, the perspective of another person who knew the participant well; and the assessor’s. Overall findings were reported in Quality of Life – Dream or Reality? Life for People with Developmental Disabilities in Ontario by Ivan Brown, Dennis Raphael and Rebecca Renwick (Quality of Life Research Unit, Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, 1997