Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQL)

“Health-related quality of life” (HRQL) is an individual’s satisfaction or happiness with domains of life insofar as they affect or are affected by “health” as defined above. HRQL can be distinguished from quality of life as we defined it earlier in that it concerns itself primarily with those factors that fall under the purview of health care providers and health care systems 6.

Generally speaking, then, assessment of HRQL represents an attempt to determine how variables within the dimension of health (e.g., a disease or its treatment) relate to particular dimensions of life that have been determined to be important to people in general (generic HRQL) or to people who have a specific disease (condition-specific HRQL). Most conceptualizations of HRQL emphasize the effects of disease on physical, social/role, psychological/emotional, and cognitive functioning. Symptoms, health perceptions, and overall quality of life are often included in the concept domain of HRQL4.