Subjectivity of the subject

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390 HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
Conclusion
The authors concluded that their individual quality of life measure can be used to elicit
the views of patients and in addition can detect changes in quality of life over time.
In addition, they argued that ‘a major advantage of a patient centred measure such as
SEIQoL especially with elicited cues is that it is applicable across all patients, illnesses and
diseases and is not specific to any one culture’. Therefore, this study illustrates the
usefulness of an individual quality of life measure in evaluating the effectiveness of a
surgical procedure.
Therefore, health status can be assessed in terms of mortality rates, morbidity,
levels of functioning and subjective health measures. Subjective health measures overlap significantly with measures of quality of life and health-related quality of life. These
different measures illustrate a shift between a number of perspectives (see Figure 16.1).
A SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVE
Value
The shift from mortality rates to subjective health measures represents a shift from
implicit value to attempts to make this value explicit. For example, mortality and morbidity measures assume that what they are measuring is an absolute index of health. The
subjects being studied are not asked, ‘Is it a bad thing that you cannot walk upstairs’ or
the relatives asked, ‘Did they want to die?’ Subjective health measures attempt to make
the value within the constructs being studied explicit by asking, ‘To what extent are you
prevented from doing the things you would like to do?’
Subjectivity of the subject
Mortality and morbidity measures are assumed to be objective scientific measures that
access a reality which is uncontaminated by bias. In contrast, the subjective measures
Fig. 16-1 A shift in perspective in measuring health
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