Cross Cultural Quality Of Life

Studio della qualità della vita in diverse culture nel campo delle disabilità cognitive.

Different cultures experience happiness differently. Traditionally, the West is considered materialistic, and happiness is said to come from achievement and acquisition. The East is said to be more people-oriented, where happiness is a result of deep personal interactions. Thus, poor people can be happier in the East than the West, because they are not so concerned with possession and more with society. This book considers happiness and quality of life in non-Western countries and cultures. Its coverage is diverse and spans the breadth of the non-Western world, revealing unique perspectives of happiness and life quality embedded in rich cultural traditions and histories.

The second edition of this popular book reflects many of the changes in the field of IDD in the first 15 years of this century, including an increased understanding of the quality-of-life (QOL) concept and the influence it has had on the field. This edition represents the work of 34 contributors, representing 14 countries, who capture the significant role the QOL concept has played in personal involvement and empowerment, self-advocacy, family-related QOL, supports planning, outcomes evaluation, continuous quality improvement, organization transformation, and systems-level change. The sample of cultures in this edition represents a somewhat different sample than that found in the first edition and is amplified by an extensive reference list that presents a broader, more complete view of international QOL work. Chapters from the developing world are included, recognizing the significant challenges faced by many countries. The contributors to this edition include those whose work is familiar and widely published, as well as self-advocates who speak from their own experiences and insights. The chapters in this edition are grouped into the following sections: the culture of QOL, QOL at the microsystem level, QOL at the mesosystem level, QOL at the macrosystem level, and the cross-cultural QOL agenda.

Considerable data and expertise have accumulated in the assessment of quality of life, but to date this assessment has largely been restricted to the devel- ment of instruments that are used only in the setting in which they were dev- oped. The chapters of this book, taken together, apply this expertise to a re- tively new area: international quality of life assessment, that is to say, consid- ing quality of life from an international perspective, and developing methods for the assessment of quality of life that can be used in more than one cultural setting. The World Health Organization (WHO) initiatives in the area of inter- tional quality of life assessment arose for several compelling reasons. The World Health Organization has a commitment to equitable and accessible health care for all. This commitment refers not only to health in its narrow sense of the absence of disease and impairment, but to health as astate of physical, mental and social well-being. Disease and impairment affect not just the physical domain of life but also a person's psychological state, level of - dependence and social relationships. This is a reality not yet fully reflected in health care settings. The broadening in focus in the measurement of health to include indicators which address this more holistic sense of health is a welcome emerging trend. The primary aim of any health intervention is to maximise health and minimise disease, thereby enhancing patients' quality of life.

Different cultures experience happiness differently. Traditionally, the West is considered materialistic, and happiness is said to come from achievement and acquisition. The East is said to be more people-oriented, where happiness is a result of deep personal interactions. Thus, poor people can be happier in the East than the West, because they are not so concerned with possession and more with society. This book considers happiness and quality of life in non-Western countries and cultures. Its coverage is diverse and spans the breadth of the non-Western world, revealing unique perspectives of happiness and life quality embedded in rich cultural traditions and histories.

The concept of quality of life exists in an increasingly culturally divergent and international environment. This global orientation means increased cultural exchanges and cross-cultural research to understand both the culture-bound and universal nature of the quality-of-life concept. In this extensive survey, two renowned quality of life experts provide a global outlook on quality of life issues for people with mental retardation.

The EUROHIS project has focused on the comparability of health surveys and has uncovered some problems that arise when aiming to compare data from different countries. Similar problems of cross-cultural comparability also arise when comparing data from other sources, such as health registers, and are just as complex and difficult to tackle. One of the main advantages of health surveys, however, is the relatively low cost and time involved in adapting them according to the needs of health policy-makers. This work shows that the output from the EUROHIS project provides common instruments for the measurement of eight health indicators. The development of these instruments has required careful consideration of relevant common concepts and how these should be defined and operationalized. The instruments are freely available for use by all countries, with the aim of enhancing national health information systems and facilitating cross-national comparisons of health data.

A fascinating and worthy text that presents new insights into a hugely important area of mental health. Health-related quality of life (HRQL) impairment is a core domain of prevalent mental disorders such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective, mood and anxiety disorders. The authors present a new conceptual framework for this field by explaining how HRQL impairment arises from interactions between various multidimensional factors. They suggest several ways in which further research could enhance our understanding of HRQL impairment, its biological basis, and its relevance to psychopathology.