SOCIOCULTURAL AND ECONOMIC-ASPECTS OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE MEASUREMENT

Obtaining a level of consensus over the definition, construction and m easurement of the concept of quality of life would allow for an improv ed degree of standardization in the assessment of clinical interventio n for people with mental health problems. One of the many benefits of this standardization would be the ability to make valid and reliable c omparisons between various interventions and across different groups o r settings, which is of particular interest to economists. There are, however, a host of sociocultural issues that present fundamental obsta cles to the satisfactory attainment of consensus over definitions and domains of quality of life. This paper considers the arguments pertine nt to each of these two alternative perspectives, the economic and the sociocultural (or anthropological), and draws out the lessons that th ese perspectives - despite the apparent polarity that exists between t hem - can offer to the improved measurement of quality of life for tho se with mental health problems.