UNDERSTANDING QUALITY-OF-LIFE - A COMPARISON BETWEEN STAFF AND PATIENTS

This paper reports on a study comparing the quality of life (QOL) of a mental health staff group and a group of patients with diagnoses of p sychotic illness. The measures used were the Lancashire Quality of Lif e Profile (LQOLP), the Life Experiences Checklist (LEG) and the Beck D epression Inventory (BDI). Between group comparisons indicated substan tial differences in objective QOL but few differences in satisfaction with various life domains. There were also no significant differences in measures of global well-being. Multiple regression analysis indicat ed that different variables were important for predicting global well- being in the two groups. The strongest predictors for the patient grou p were objective freedom (LEC) and satisfaction with health (LQOLP) wh ile for the staff group the best predictors were Satisfaction with liv ing situation; total LEC score; negative affect; and satisfaction with family. Some possible implications of these results for the use of gl obal well-being as an outcome measure are discussed. The potential imp ortance of cognitive processes in the rating of QOL is also highlighte d.