Quality of life
Volf, N.
Medicinski Pregled 44(3-4): 131-135
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-8105 PMID: 1921860 Document Number: 384471
The term "Quality of life" appeared at the end of the fifties of this century, it seems in the philosophical and sociological vocabulary at first, and soon after that it became adjusted in medical and non-medical (politics, ethology, mass media) use. In the last few years this term has been used all the more frequently in different branches of medicine because of a more extended human lifetime, due to the development of medicine, the domination of chronic diseases in the pathology of well-developed environments, and because of the growing influence of socio-psychological viewpoints in the bounds of medicine as well. Time will show whether only a transient, "fashionable" term is in question, or if a lasting survival in medical vocabulary has been ensured. This paper analyses the development and the contents of the quality of life concept, it's ethical connotation, the application in different branches of medicine, as well as the principals and problems of it's measurement for clinical purposes. The literature contributed includes 75 domestic and foreign authentic references.