Page 112 - Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care in Clinical Practice ( PDFDrive )

86 Chapter 4. Quality of Life and Well- Being

• Given what we already know about psychological
health, increasing the focus on well-being may pro-
vide a mechanism through which to boost a patient’s
psychological resources thereby reducing anxiety,
stress and pain, and accelerate the healing process.

Summary

The assessment of quality of life (QoL) has become progres-
sively important over the past 25 years. In clinical settings this
is usually called health related quality of life (HRQoL),
which has become well-established as an essential patient
reported outcome measure (PROM). A related concept,
which is garnering increasing interest, is subjective well-
being. Despite some commonalities, HRQoL and well-being
should be treated as separate concepts; they should not be
used as synonyms. In short, HRQoL refers to the cognitive
appraisal which a patient makes about the impact their health
has on their daily life, whilst well-being concerns a patient’s
emotional response to their wound, its treatment and their
future. This chapter explores these concepts in more detail,
beginning by explaining the theoretical foundations of QoL
and wellbeing, and describing the conceptual models that can
be applied to wound care. Ways of measuring QoL and well-
being are also discussed, before finally the implications for
practice, and the benefits for patient care are determined.

Introduction

Researchers and health care professionals place great impor-
tance on the improvement and maintenance of the QoL and
well-being of chronically ill patients (Herber et al. 2007 ).
Today QoL measures are routinely used to evaluate psycho-
social and economic costs and benefits of various health