The Development of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment Instrument (the WHOQOL)

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) is developing an international quality of life assessment instrument (WHOQOL) which will allow an enquiry into the perception of individuals of their own position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live, and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. The WHOQOL will measure quality of life related to health and health care. It is being developed in the framework of a collaborative project involving numerous centres in different cultural settings. In addition it will have proven psychometric properties of validity, reliability and responsiveness to change and will be sensitive to the cultural setting in which it is applied, while maintaining comparability of scores across different cultural settings. This chapter outlines the methodology for the development of the instrument and sets out the characteristics and uses of the WHOQOL.

This paper was drafted by Dr. Willem Kuyken and Dr. John Orley on behalf of the WHOQOL Group. The WHOQOL group comprises a coordinating group, collaborating investigators in each of the field centres, and a panel of consultants. Responsible staff at headquaters in WHO, Geneva, are: Dr. J. Orley, Dr. W. Kuyken and Dr. N. Sartorius. In the field centres collaborating investigators are: Professor H. Herrman, Dr. H. Schofield and Ms. B. Murphy, University of Melbourne, Australia; Professor Z. Metelko, Professor S. Szabo and Mrs. Pibernik-Okanovic, Institute of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases and Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Croatia; Dr. N. Quemada and Dr. A. Caria, INSERM, Paris, France; Dr. S. Rajkumar and Mrs. Shuba Kumar, Madras Medical College, India; Dr. S. Saxena, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, India; Dr. D. Bar-On and Dr. M. Amir, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheeva, Israel; Dr. Professor Dr. G. Van Heck and Mrs. J. De Vries, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Professor J. Arroyo Sucre, University of Panama, Panama; Professor M. Kabanov, Dr. A. Lomachenkov and Dr. G. Burkovsky, Bekhterev Psychoneurological Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia; Professor Sompotch Sukwatana and Mr. Kitikorn Meesapya, Institute of Mental Health, Bangkok, Thailand; Dr. S. Skevington, Ms. P. MacArthur and Ms. M. Somerset, University of Bath, United Kingdom; Dr. D. Patrick, Ms. M. Martin and Ms. D. Wild, University of Washington, Seattle, USA and Professor W. Acuda, Dr. J. Mutambirwa, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe. Further centres in China, Japan and Spain are likely to join the project in the coming months. The project is sponsored by WHO and is funded by WHO, the participating field centres, the Carnegie Foundation, the IPSEN Foundation, and the Upjohn Company.

The consultants that have advised WHO at various stages of the development of the project have included: Dr. N. K. Aaronson, Dr. P. Bech, Dr. N. Blinov, Dr. D. Buesching, Dr. D. Bucquet, Dr. M. Bullinger, Dr. L. W. Chambers, Dr. He-Nian Chen, Dr. B. Cramer, Dr. B. Jambon, Dr. C. D. Jenkins, Dr. D. De Leo, Dr. L. Fallowfield, Dr. 1. Fox-Rushby, Dr. P. Gerin, Dr. P. Graham, Dr. O. Gureje, Dr. R. Hays, Dr. K. Kalumba, Dr. Kerr-Correa, Dr. L. Kogan, Dr. C. Mercier, Dr. C. Moinpour, Mr. J. Oliver, Dr. Y. H. Poortinga, Dr. R. Rosser, Dr. R. ‘Ifotter and Dr. F. Van Dam.