Free Health Dissertations - Quality Of Life - Assessing Quality Of Life In People With Learning
Quality of Life - Assessing quality of life in people with learning difficulties
Quality of life is an immensely complex construct and there remains considerable conceptual confusion as to what constitutes and what affects quality of life (Bowling, 1995). A major problem in quality of life assessment is that researchers are trying to quantify constructs that are not always directly or independently measurable. Quality of life is often a subjective indication of how one feels about the way they life their life. Researchers often focus on what is measurable, yet may neglect what is important to the individual they are asking. Therefore it is important to clarify which domains might constitute quality of life, and also to clarify the relationships and interactions between them. This may mean describing the factors which promote and inhibit a person’s quality of life in reference to that person’s flexibility of choice, constructive activity, and social and community affiliation (Perry, 2002).
Learning Disabilities refers to a variety of disorders that affect the acquisition, retention, understanding, organization or use of verbal and/or non-verbal information. People with learning disabilities often have some form of communication difficulty. In general people with learning disabilities have difficulty with understanding and using language. These difficulties can ranges in severity and invariably interfere with the acquisition and use of one or more of the following forms of communication. For example, difficulties are presented in oral language (e.g., listening, speaking, understanding) reading (e.g., decoding, comprehension) written language (e.g., spelling, written expression) and mathematics (e.g., computation, problem solving). With these communication difficulties in mind, it is important to realise that assessing the quality of life of the individual presenting learning difficulties, it may be difficult to gain a representative idea of how they feel in regards to their quality of life. Many standardised measurements of quality of life are inappropriate for people with learning disabilities, as the individual either does not fully understand questions that are being asked of them, or have difficulty expressing their opinions. Thus mis-interpretation is often a confounding variable in this type of research.
Quality of life is essentially a subjective account of how one feels about their life and the way they live it. However, to assess quality of life there needs to be some common features that help to indicate these emotions. For example, quality of life may be assessed through the choices a person has to exercise their wishes and demands. Alternatively it may be measured through how the individual is able to constructively participate in activities or how they conduct themselves in social relationships and community attachments.
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