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Quality of Life in Older People

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Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

Synonyms

Aged; Happiness; Old age; Subjective life quality; Subjective wellbeing

Definitions

Both of the terms in this chapter title require definition. A simple and comprehensive definition of “quality of life” (QOL) comes from the Australian Centre on Quality of Life, as: “Quality of life is both objective and subjective. Each of these two axes comprise several domains which, together, define the total construct. Objective domains are measured through culturally relevant indices of objective wellbeing. Subjective domains are measured through questions of satisfaction.”

While this definition will be elaborated as the chapter unfolds, two points can be noted. First, the objective and subjective dimensions must be measured separately. Second, the subjective dimension is commonly referred to as subjective wellbeing (SWB).

“Older people” are defined in agreement with the general literature and with the convention adopted for this volume, as referring to people 65 years of age and older.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2013S1A3A2054622).

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Correspondence to Robert A. Cummins .

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Cummins, R.A. (2016). Quality of Life in Older People. In: Pachana, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_295-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_295-1

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