WHO defines Quality of Life as an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the

culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and
concerns. It is a broad ranging concept affected in a complex way by the person's physical health,
psychological state, personal beliefs, social relationships and their relationship to salient features of
their environment.

Quality of life is the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining negative and
positive features of life. It observes life satisfaction, including everything from physical health,
family, education, employment, wealth, safety, security to freedom, religious beliefs, and the
environment. QOL has a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international
development, healthcare, politics and employment. It is important not to mix up the concept of
QOL with a more recent growing area of health related QOL (HRQO). An assessment of
HRQOL is effectively an evaluation of QOL and its relationship with health.

Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based
primarily on income.

Standard indicators of the quality of life include not only wealth and employment but also the
built environment, physical and mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social
belonging. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), quality of life is defined as “the
individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in
which they live and in relation to their goals.” In comparison to WHO's definitions, the Wong-
Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale defines quality of life as “life quality (in this case, physical pain)
at a precise moment in time.”

According to ecological economist Robert Costanza:

While Quality of Life (QOL) has long been an explicit or implicit policy goal, adequate
definition and measurement have been elusive. Diverse "objective" and "subjective" indicators
across a range of disciplines and scales, and recent work on subjective well-being (SWB)
surveys and the psychology of happiness have spurred renewed interest.

One approach, called engaged theory, outlined in the journal of Applied Research in the Quality
of Life, posits four domains in assessing quality of life: ecology, economics, politics and culture.
In the domain of culture, for example, it includes the following subdomains of quality of life:

 Belief and ideas

 Creativity and recreation
 Enquiry and learning
 Gender and generations
 Identity and engagement
 Memory and projection
 Well-being and health

Also frequently related are concepts such as freedom, human rights, and happiness. However,
since happiness is subjective and difficult to measure, other measures are generally given
priority. It has also been shown that happiness, as much as it can be measured, does not
necessarily increase correspondingly with the comfort that results from increasing income. As a
result, standard of living should not be taken to be a measure of happiness. Also sometimes
considered related is the concept of human security, though the latter may be considered at a
more basic level and for all people.

World Health Organization WHOQOL: Measuring Quality of Life. Introducing the WHOQOL
instruments.https://www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/whoqol-qualityoflife/en/