QUALITY-OF-LIFE ASSESSMENT - THE WORLD-HEALTH-ORGANIZATION PERSPECTIVE

Assessment of quality of life (QoL) and use of this information toward s improvement of health carl services is an important area of activity of the World Health organization (WHO). This paper briefly discusses the conceptual basis and the methodology used in WHO's Quality of Life Project (WHOQOL). It describes the simultaneous development of instru ments in widely different cultures to assess subjective QoL. Use of th ese instruments in the field of clinical trials with psychotropics is highlighted.