Page 111 - Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care in Clinical Practice ( PDFDrive )

Chapter 4

Quality of Life
and Well- Being

Box 4.1: Key Points
• Quality of life and well-being are umbrella terms

that refer to an individual’s subjective ratings of their
satisfaction with life, and affective state respectively;
• Despite being widely used, these terms are poorly
defined and often misused; for example, although
often used interchangeably, quality of life and well-
being are not synonyms, nor are they on the same
continuum;

• Health related quality of life is an important patient
reported outcome that measures the (negative)
impact of the wound and treatment strategies on
daily functioning and mental health (deficit model);

• In contrast well-being assesses the presence of posi-
tive psychological variables that may protect the
patient’s mental health (resource model);

• Assessment currently focuses on the deficit model,
however this is limited, as the absence of mental
health problems should not be taken to indicate
good well-being;

D. Upton, P. Upton, Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care 85
in Clinical Practice, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-09653-7_4,
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015