Comprehensive Review: Indicators for Assessing Quality of Life

This report delves into the multifaceted concept of Quality of Life (QOL), examining its definition and the various factors that contribute to it, as defined by the World Health Organization. It highlights the importance of well-being and the role of government organizations in improving QOL through initiatives like reducing mortality and morbidity rates and promoting primary health care. The report focuses on key indicators used to quantify QOL, including the Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI), developed by Morris David, and the Human Development Index (HDI), which assesses a country's development based on human capabilities. It details the components of each index, such as literacy rates, infant mortality, life expectancy, and gross national income, and discusses the evolution of HDI measurements. The report also mentions other QOL assessment tools like Health Day Measures, the Short-Form Health Survey, EQ-5D, and AQoL-8D, providing a comprehensive overview of the methods used to evaluate and improve the quality of life globally.

Running head: INDICATORS OF QUALITY OF LIFE
Indicators of Quality of Life
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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INDICATORS OF QUALITY OF LIFE
The term Quality of Life (QOL) sounds complex when asked to define. According to
World Health Organization (WHO), the quality of life is defined as the condition of life that
is arising out of the combination of several determining factors like determinants in health,
happiness, education, social factors and intellectual attainments (Measuring Quality of Life
2017). Here happiness in life is dependent on free of expression, action, justice, comfort in
the physical environment and job satisfaction. People at present are demanding a better
quality of life wrapped with well-being. It should be noted that the increase in the financial
set up and job satisfaction, cannot alone improve the quality of life. Therefore, the
government organizations are working in favor of this via reducing the rates of mortality,
chances of morbidity, increasing the standards of primary health care while promoting
physical and mental well-being (Fayers and Machin 2013). The changes are being affected
via reformulation of the social policy and societal goals.
Indicators for Quality of Life
Source: Created by Author
Physical quality of Life Index (PQLI) is an attempt to quantify the quality of life or
well-being of a population of a country. The value of the PQLI is obtained via average of

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three statistical data which are the rate of literacy, the rate of infant mortality, the rate of lfe
expectancy as per the age (Estes 2014). All these statistical factors are rated on the parameter
of 0 to 100-scale. Morris David developed the concept in the year of 1970s for Overseas
Development Council (Estes 2014).PQLI is the measure of the degree of refinement of the
social, economic and political policies and does not reflect the measurement of the economic
growth (Estes 2014). (Formula used for measuring PQLI: refer to appendix 1).
Human Development Index (HDI) was designed to strengthen the concept of people
and their criteria are ultimate for assessing the development of country. Here the development
of a country centers not only around the economic growth but refers to the overall
development of the people or average achievement in the key areas of human development
(Hdr.undp.org 2017). Here achievements in human development include basic human
capabilities like being knowledgeable, leading a long life and enjoying a decent standard of
living. The value of HDI ranges in between 0 to 1.
Figure: Human Development Index
(Source: Ravallion 2012)

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INDICATORS OF QUALITY OF LIFE
The indicators, which were used before 2009 to measure, HDI was adult literacy rate,
gross enrolment ratio and gross national income (GNI). However, an amendment was made
in the year of 2010 and was further updated in 2011 (please refer to appendix 2). The three
dimension of HDI as proposed in 2010 are: life expectancy/birth, education index, GNI per
capita (Ravallion 2012).
Other measures, which are used to ascertain the QOL, are generic questioners. The
first is the “Health Day Measures” used by CDC (Center of Disease Control;
https://www.cdc.gov/hrqol/hrqol14_measure.htm) and Short-From Health Survey (used to
access physical and mental health and is suitable for pharmacogeneic analysis) (Felice and
Vasta 2014). Other two questioners are EQ-5D (https://euroqol.org) and AQoL-8D
(https://www.aqol.com.au).

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References
Estes, R.J., 2014. Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI). Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and
Well-Being Research, pp.4804-4805.
Fayers, P.M. and Machin, D., 2013. Quality of life: the assessment, analysis and
interpretation of patient-reported outcomes. John Wiley & Sons.
Felice, E. and Vasta, M., 2014. Passive modernization? The new human development index
and its components in Italy's regions (1871–2007). European Review of Economic
History, 19(1), pp.44-66.
Hdr.undp.org. (2017). Human Development Index (HDI) | Human Development Reports.
[online] Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi
[Accessed 21 Oct. 2017].
Measuring Quality of Life. (2017). [ebook] World Health Organisation. Available at:
http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/68.pdf [Accessed 21 Oct. 2017].
Ravallion, M., 2012. Troubling tradeoffs in the human development index. Journal of
Development Economics, 99(2), pp.201-209.

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Appendix 1
The formula for PQLI is:
(Literacy Rate + INDEXED Infant Mortality Rate + INDEXED Life Expectancy)
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Appendix 2
Figure: Changes in HDI measurement as proposed in 2011
(Source: Felice and Vasta 2014)