These are important questions that can have no definitive answers. However, they are well worth discussing in a collegial, rational, and fact-based way.
I presented this Topic to The Villages Philosophy Club today and had the nearly 50 people who attended, mostly retirees in their 60's, 70's and 80's, select what they judged to be the most important factors leading to high Quality of Life. They also used a questionaire called "EQ-5D" to estimate their individual Health-Related Quality of Life levels. We then discussed the results and the implications for making individual Health Care decisions.The results of our selections and evaluations are posted below.
You may view and download the PowerPoint slides here: https://sites.google.com/site/iraclass/my-forms/QualityOfLife3Aug2012.pptx?attredirects=0&d=1
WHAT IS QUALITY OF LIFE?
After researching this question on the Internet, and thinking about my own country, community, family, and life, I came to the conclusion that Standard of Living is only one contributor to a high Quality of Life. It is definitely possible to live at a moderate Standard of Living so long as you have other beneficial factors in your life. I came up with a list of some 21 beneficial factors, seven having to do with Personal aspects of our lives, seven with People in our lives, and seven with Things in our lives, as follows:
PERSONAL
⃝
Higher Education and Knowledge
⃝
Honest, Hard-Working Reputation
⃝
Satisfying, Rewarding Career
⃝
Travel, Hobbies, Recreation and Leisure Time
⃝
Robust Health and Long Life
⃝
Emotional Well-Being
⃝
Strong Religious Faith
PEOPLE
⃝ Loving Parents, Grandparents
⃝ Loving Spouse, Children, Grandchildren
⃝ Loving Siblings and Extended Family
⃝ Great Teachers, Clergy, Bosses, …
⃝ Loyal Friends and Good Neighbors
⃝ Cooperative, Competent Co-Workers
⃝ Cooperative, Competent Co-Workers
⃝ Competent and Friendly Service People
THINGS
⃝ Freedom and Human Rights
⃝ Stable and Secure Finances
⃝ Comfortable, Safe Home and Community
⃝ High-Tech Electronics and Entertainment
⃝ Fine Food, Fancy Furnishings, High Lifestyle
⃝ Excellent Healthcare
⃝ Excellent Healthcare
⃝ Golf, Swimming and other Sports Facilities
RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
During my presentation to The Villages Philosophy Club today, nearly 50 people participated in the survey. Each member was asked to vote for his or her top ten items and the scores are tallied and graphed below to determine the most important two in each category and the most important ten in the whole list.
The top "THINGS" items were:-Stable and Secure Finances, and
-Excellent Healthcare
The top "PERSONAL" items were:-Robust Health and Long Life, and
-Emptional Well-Being
The top "PEOPLE" items were:
-Loving Spouse, Children, Grands, and
-Loyal Friends, Good Neighbors
The overall top ten items were the ones with their numbers highlighted in pink:
They are:
1-Robust Health and Long Life
2-Freedom and Human Rights
3-Stable and Secure Finances
4-Excellent Healthcare
5-Loving Spouse, CHildren, Grands
6-Comfortable/Safe Home/Community
7-Emotional Well-Being
8-Loyal Friends, Good Neighbors
9-Travel, Hobbies, Recreation, leisure
10-Loving Parents, Grandparents
OTHER MEASURES OF QUALITY OF LIFE
The Human Development Index (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2011_UN_Human_Development_Report_Quartiles.svg) is a 2011 UN publication that considers life expectance, literacy, education, standards of living, and other aspects of Quality of Life to come up with a score for each country. Not surprisingly, the highest levels are found in the US, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, Chile, and Argentina. The lowest in Central Africa and parts of Asia.
The Quality of Life Index (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-of-life_index) was put out in 2005 by the respected British magazine The Economist and they consider:
Healthiness: Life
expectancy at birth
Family life:
Divorce rate
Community life: High rate
of church attendance or trade-union
membership
Material well being: GDP
per person
Political stability and security:
Political stability and security
Climate and geography: Latitude
(warmer and
colder climates)
Job security:
Unemployment rate
Political freedom: Political
and
civil liberties
Gender equality: Average
male
and female earnings
The Happy Planet Index (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Happy_Planet.PNG) is a 2006-2012 effort that "is not a measure of which are the happiest countries in the world: [but rather a]
Measure of the environmental efficiency of supporting well-being in a given country, and of the Subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological footprint per capita.
The US comes in at a dismal #114 in the 2009 rankings, and is in the worst category along with much of Central Africa and Russia. The best three countries in the 2012 ranking are Costa RIca, Vietnam, and Columbia which each have a "Happy Planet Index" that is twice that of the US.
WHAT IS HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE?
How should Quality of Life impact health care decisions? Government agencies, including the US Centers for Desease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) have considered this question for decades, and their decisions are currrently affecting your health care availability, and will do so more and more in the future.
The US CDC website (see http://www.cdc.gov/hrqol/concept.htm) has links to many Health-Related Quality of Life pages, as does the UK NICE website (see http://www.nice.org.uk/).
Health-Related Quality of Life is measured by several different questionaires, inluding the SF-36 and EQ-5D. The SF-36 (see http://www.anapsid.org/cnd/files/sf36.pdf) consists of 36 multiple-choice questions. The EQ-5D (see
http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/painres/download/whatis/QALY.pdf) has five multiple-choice quesitions. The result is a personal score that ranges from 1 (for perfect health) to 0 (for death). It is possible to score as low as -0.5 (worse than death).
The members of The Villages Philosophy Club took the EQ-5D survey and the average personal score was 0.88, indicating a pretty healthy group. Around 40% of us reported PERFECT HEALTH with a score of 1.0. About 30% reported NEAR-PERFECT HEALTH with a score of 0.88. About 22% (including me) reported the next level down with a score of 0.76. About 4% reported a score of 0.62, and about 2% each reported 0.47 and 0.33.
When a health care decision is to be made between alternative treatments, consideration is given to an estimate of the level of Health-Related Quality of Life that will most likely result from each treatment alternative, as well as an estimate of how long the patient is likely to live if given that treatment. The result of multiplying Health-Related Quality of Life by Years of Life is called the Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY). The members of The Villages Philosophy Club took the EQ-5D survey and the average personal score was 0.88, indicating a pretty healthy group. Around 40% of us reported PERFECT HEALTH with a score of 1.0. About 30% reported NEAR-PERFECT HEALTH with a score of 0.88. About 22% (including me) reported the next level down with a score of 0.76. About 4% reported a score of 0.62, and about 2% each reported 0.47 and 0.33.
In the UK, if a given treatment alternative costs less than about 30,000 pounds per QALY, and if the doctor and patient want that alternative, it is approved and paid for by the National Health Service. If the desired alternative is more expensive than about 30,000 pounds per QALY, it is denied, and a lower cost (and more cost-effective) alternative is approved. 30,000 pounds is equivalent to about $47,000.
Ira Glickstein
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