Comparative evaluation of Quality of Life indicators: towards developing a comprehensive standard model for measuring Quality of Life
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17979/ejge.2025.14.1.11247Abstract
This study aims to improve the understanding of quality of life (QoL) by evaluating key indicators, identifying influential factors, and assessing their relative weights. This study utilizes panel data from 181 cases across 32 European countries (2012-2017). The study employs exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to create a comprehensive QoL measurement model. Four primary factors were found to influence QoL in Europe: economy, health, education, and governance quality. The study compares five common QoL indicators—income, GDP, life expectancy, the Human Development Index (HDI), and the Legatum Prosperity Index—against this model. Results show that the HDI is the most balanced indicator, while others exhibit biases. The study emphasizes the need for more precise and comprehensive QoL measures and recommends applying exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to enhance them. Future research should validate the model in other regions and further improve QoL measurement.
Keywords:
Article Details
References
Abu-Alrop, J. H. A. (2025). European European Panel Data: Quality of Life, Governance, Economy, Education, and Health (2012-2017) (Version V1) [Data file]. Harvard Dataverse. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/MTTFJR
Alarcón, D., & Sánchez, J. (2015). Assessing convergent and discriminant validity in the ADHD-R IV rating scale: User-written commands for Average Variance Extracted (AVE), Composite Reliability (CR), and Heterotrait-Monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT). Spanish Stata Users Group Meeting, 1–39. Madrid. https://www.stata.com/meeting/spain15/abstracts/materials/spain15_alarcon.pdf
Baker, D., Leon, J., Smith Greenaway, E., Collins, J., & Movit, M. (2011). The education effect on population health: A reassessment. Population and Development Review, 37(2), 307–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2011.00412.x
Beslerová, S., & Dzuričková, J. (2014). Quality of life measurements in EU countries. Procedia Economics and Finance, 12, 37–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(14)00318-9
Bigelow, D., McFarland, B., & Olson, M. (1991). Quality of life of community mental health program clients: Validating a measure. Community Mental Health Journal, 27(1), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00752714
Brown, J., Bowling, A., & Flynn, T. (2004). Models of quality of life: A taxonomy, overview and systematic review of the literature. European Forum on Population Ageing Research.
Campbell, A. (1981). Sense of well-being in America: Recent patterns and trends. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Campbell, A., Converse, P. E., & Rodgers, W. L. (1976). The quality of American life. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Christensen, K., & Levinson, D. (Eds.). (2003). Encyclopedia of community: From the village to the virtual world. London: SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412952583
Clarke, P., Marshall, V., Ryff, C., & Rosenthal, C. (2000). Well-being in Canadian seniors: Findings from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging. Canadian Journal on Aging, 19(2), 139–159. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0714980800013982
Costanza, R., Fisher, B., Ali, S., Beer, C., Bond, L., Boumans, R., ... Snapp, R. (2007). Quality of life: An approach integrating opportunities, human needs, and subjective well-being. Ecological Economics, 61(2–3), 267–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.02.023
Cutler, D., & Lleras-Muney, A. (2010). Understanding differences in health behaviors by education. Journal of Health Economics, 29(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2009.10.003
Deseran, A. F. (1978). Community satisfaction as definition of the situation: Some conceptual issues. Rural Sociology, 43(2), 235–249.
Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2002). Will money increase subjective well-being? A literature review and guide to needed research. Social Indicators Research, 57(2), 119–169. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27526987
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. (2004). Beyond money: Toward an economy of well-being. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5(1), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.00501001.x
Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Tay, L. (2018). Advances in subjective well-being research. Nature Human Behaviour, 2(4), 253–260. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0307-6
Dunn, E., Aknin, L., & Norton, M. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319(5870), 1687–1688. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1150952
Easterlin, R. A. (1974). Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. En P. A. David & M. W. Reder (Eds.), Nations and households in economic growth: Essays in honor of Moses Abramovitz (pp. 89–125). New York, NY: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-205050-3.50008-7
Elizabeth, S. (2007). The Human Development Index: A history (Working Paper No. 127). Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Eurostat. (2015). Quality of life: Facts and views (2015 edition). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3217494/6856423/KS-05-14-073-EN-N.pdf/742aee45-4085-4dac-9e2e-9ed7e9501f23?t=1433141890000
Eurostat. (2024). Quality of life indicators – Measuring quality of life. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Quality_of_life_indicators_-_measuring_quality_of_life
Gabriel, Z., & Bowling, A. (2004). Quality of life from the perspectives of older people. Ageing and Society, 24(5), 675–691. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X03001582
Gaskin, J., & Lim, J. (2016). Master validity tool [AMOS plugin]. En Gaskination’s StatWiki. https://statwiki.gaskination.com
Graham, B., & Kenealy, P. (2004). Quality of life perceptions and social comparisons in healthy old age. Ageing and Society, 24(5), 755–769. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X04002399
Green, C. D. (2000). A theory of human motivation by A. H. Maslow. En Classics in the History of Psychology. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm
Grundy, E., & Bowling, A. (1999). Enhancing the quality of extended life years: Identification of the oldest old with a very good and very poor quality of life. Aging & Mental Health, 3(3), 199–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607869956154
Gulick, J., Bowerman, C., & Back, K. (1962). Newcomer enculturation in the city: Attitudes and participation. En F. S. Chapin Jr. & S. Weiss (Eds.), Urban growth dynamics in a regional cluster of cities (pp. 315–358). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Hajdúová, Z., Andrejovský, P., Gajdoš, J., & Andrejkovič, M. (2011). The quality of life and the environment. Journal of Innovations and Applied Statistics, 1, 37–42. https://jias.euke.sk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/1-2011.pdf
Hollingshead, A., & Rogler, L. (1963). Attitudes toward slums and public housing in Puerto Rico. En L. J. Duhl et al. (Eds.), The urban condition. New York: Basic Books.
Hsieh, C.-M. (2013). Issues in evaluating importance weighting in quality of life measures. Social Indicators Research, 110(2), 681–693. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9951-1
Hu, L.-T., & Bentler, P. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
Hughes, B. (1990). Quality of life. En S. M. Peace (Ed.), Researching social gerontology: Concepts, methods and issues (pp. 46–58). London: Sage.
Kahneman, D., & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(38), 16489–16493. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1011492107
Kaiser, H. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39(1), 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02291575
Knipscheer, C., de Jong-Gierveld, J., van Tilburg, T., & Dykstra, P. (1995). Living arrangements and social networks of older adults. Amsterdam: VU University Press.
Lawton, P. M. (1991). A multidimensional view of quality of life in frail elders. En J. E. Birren, J. Lubben, J. Rowe, & D. Deutchman (Eds.), The concept and measurement of quality of life in the frail elderly (pp. 3–27). New York, NY: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-101275-5.50005-3
Malkina-Pykh, I., & Pykh, Y. (2008). Quality-of-life indicators at different scales: Theoretical background. Ecological Indicators, 8(6), 854–862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2007.01.008
Marans, W. R., & Rodgers, W. (1975). Toward an understanding of community satisfaction. En A. Hawley & V. Rock (Eds.), Metropolitan America in contemporary perspective (pp. 299–352). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Maričić, M. (2019). Assessing the quality of life in the European Union: The European Index of Life Satisfaction (EILS). Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 35(2), 261–267. https://doi.org/10.3233/SJI-180481
Marmot, M., Friel, S., Bell, R., Houweling, T. A., & Taylor, S. (2008). Closing the gap in a generation: Health equity through action on the social determinants of health. The Lancet, 372(9650), 1661–1669. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61690-6
Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
Matarrita-Cascante, D. (2010). Changing communities, community satisfaction, and quality of life: A view of multiple perceived indicators. Social Indicators Research, 98(1), 105–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9520-z
Morris, E. W., & Winter, M. (1978). Housing, family, and society. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Murray, C., Aravkin, A., Zheng, P., Abbafati, C., Abbas, K., Abbasi-Kangevari, M., ... Acharya, D. (2020). Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. The Lancet, 396(10258), 1223–1249. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30752-2
Noll, H.-H. (2002). Towards a European system of social indicators: Theoretical framework and system architecture. Social Indicators Research, 58, 47–87. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015775631413
Otoiu, A., Titan, E., & Dumitrescu, R. (2014). Are the variables used in building composite indicators of well-being relevant? Validating composite indexes of well-being. Ecological Indicators, 46, 575–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.07.019
Oxford University. (2011). Oxford dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Potter, J., & Cantarero, R. (2014). Community satisfaction. En A. C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research (pp. 1094–1099). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_480
Raleigh, V. S. (2019). Trends in life expectancy in EU and other OECD countries: Why are improvements slowing? OECD Health Working Papers, No. 108. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/223159ab-en
Ryff, C., & Singer, B. (2008). Know thyself and become what you are: A eudaimonic approach to psychological well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(1), 13–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-006-9019-0
Scharf, T., Phillipson, C., & Smith, A. (2004). Poverty and social exclusion: Growing older in deprived urban neighbourhoods. En C. Walker (Ed.), Growing older: Quality of life in old age (pp. 81–106). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Stiglitz, J., Sen, A., & Fitoussi, J. (2009). Report by the commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/8131721/8131772/Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi-Commission-report.pdf
Tang, T. L.-P. (2007). Income and quality of life: Does the love of money make a difference? Journal of Business Ethics, 72(4), 375–393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9176-4
Tesch-Römer, C., & Motel-Klingebiel, A. (2001). Quality of life in the context of intergenerational solidarity. En S. O. Daatland & K. Herlofson (Eds.), Ageing, intergenerational relations, care systems and quality of life (pp. 63–73). Oslo: NOVA.
Theodori, G. L. (2001). Examining the effects of community satisfaction and attachment on individual well-being. Rural Sociology, 66(4), 618–628. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1549-0831.2001.tb00087.x
United Nations Development Programme. (2010). Human development report 2010: The real wealth of nations – Pathways to human development. New York: UNDP. https://hdr.undp.org/content/human-development-report-2010
Walker, A. (2005). A European perspective on quality of life in old age. European Journal of Ageing, 2(1), 2–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-005-0500-0
Walker, A., & Van der Maesen, L. J. G. (2004). Social quality and quality of life. En W. Glatzer, S. von Below, & M. Stoffregen (Eds.), Challenges for quality of life in the contemporary world (Social Indicators Research Series, Vol. 24). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2903-5_2
Wang, J.-H., Hopke, P., Hancewicz, T., & Zhang, S. (2003). Application of modified alternating least squares regression to spectroscopic image analysis. Analytica Chimica Acta, 476(1), 93–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-2670(02)01369-7
World Bank Group. (2018). World Bank annual report 2018. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/630671538158537244/pdf/The-World-Bank-Annual-Report-2018.pdf
World Health Organization. (2012). The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL). Geneva: World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-HIS-HSI-Rev.2012.03
World Health Organization. (2019). Primary health care on the road to universal health coverage: 2019 monitoring report. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240029040