Quality of Life Measurement Among Persons with Chronic Mental Illness: A Critique of Measures and Methods

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Appendix A

Search Terms

Index Medicus and Psychological Abstracts

Text Word Search Strategy

Reference Databases: PsychLit, MedLine (1991- Oct/1995)
Search Set #	Key Terms
1.	Psychiatric or Mental or Schizophrenic or Bipolar or Depression or Depressed or Affective or Psychotic or Psychoses or Psychosis
2.	QoL or "Quality of Life"
3.	Methods or Methodology or Techniques or Instrument or Survey or Design
4.	Critique or Review or Meta-Analysis or Comparison

Search #1: Sets # 1 & 2 & 3

Search #2: Sets # 1& 2 & 4

(Overlap between Combinations #1 and #2 removed)

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Appendix B

Definitions of Table Headings

Domain Category Definitions (Table 1)

Health: Items or scales pertaining to physical functioning, specific physical symptoms or condition of illness/health.

Psychiatric Symptoms: Items or scales pertaining to symptoms related to a state of mind or mental condition.

Finances: Items or scales pertaining to the financial status or welfare of the patient.

Living Situation: Items or scales pertaining to the condition or adequacy of the patient's living environment.

Family: Items or scales specifically referring to family members as distinct from other forms of social support in a patient's life.

Social/Love Relations: Items or scales pertaining to the amount or degree of emotional or instrumental social support in a patient's life.

Leisure/Creativity: Items or scales pertaining to the amount, degree or type of leisure or creative activities in a patient's life.

Community/Productivity: Perhaps the most controversial grouping, these items or scales pertain to the amount, degree or type of community involvement or employment activities. Employment and community involvement were grouped since many persons suffering from chronic mental illness are not employed full-time and may engage in other activities which contribute to their community.

Religion: Items or scales pertaining to individuals' involvement with formal or informal religion, spirituality or worship.

Self-Esteem/Well-being: Items or scales pertaining to the emotional, psychological or subjective state of being, including (but not limited to) global self-esteem, sense of psychological well-being, contentment, optimism and outlook.

Specifications Table Categories (Table 2)

Interviews: Instruments are administered by a trained interviewer who asks the items on the instrument, listens for responses and seeks clarification when unclear.

Surveys: Pencil and paper questionnaires which contain instructions for completion and rely heavily on patients' comprehension for completion.

Objective Criteria: Criteria used in the assessment of life quality which are observable and which tend to have a theoretical relationship to the existence of a definable standard of life quality.

Evaluative Criteria: Criteria used in the assessment of life quality which are based on a patient's cognitive or emotional judgements, also known as "subjective" ratings. Some instruments define the gap between the perceived amount of an experience or event and the desired level for that event as an important indicator of life quality.

Patient Reports: Responses are made by the patient to either a survey or an interview administration.

Trained Raters: The use of persons who are trained to use information gathered through interviews or direct observation of patients to rate the patient with respect to a particular QoL measurement tool.

Proxy Reports: Responses from any person who is not specifically trained to provide information on behalf of the patients themselves.

Evaluative Dimensions Table Categories (Table 3)

Domain Importance Rating: Scales which ask patients to rate the importance of a particular experience or set of experiences to themselves. These ratings are typically used to weight their satisfaction or fulfilment ratings in the same area (e.g., Gap Discrepancy Model).

Fulfilment/Satisfaction Ratings: Scales which ask patients to rate their satisfaction or fulfilment in particular areas of their lives or sets of experiences.

Physical/Functional Impact: Scales which ask patients to evaluate the impact of illness states or life circumstance on particular aspects of physical health or functioning.

Social/Emotional Impact: Scales which ask patients to evaluate the impact of illness states or life circumstance on aspects of their emotional or social experiences.

Self-Esteem/Well-being: Scales pertaining to the emotional, psychological or subjective state of being, including (but not limited to) global self-esteem, sense of psychological well-being, contentment, optimism and outlook.

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Appendix C

Other Readings

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