生命质量的跨文化研究现状

生命质量目前已广泛应用于社会各领域,成为不可或缺的重要指标和评定工具.随着医学和卫生保健国际交流的广泛化,生命质量的跨文化研究成为新的研究热点.对当前国际上活跃的生命质量跨文化研究项目进行阐明,并分析存在的问题.     

武汉市福利院老年人生命质量与抑郁关系研究

生命质量(QOL)是一个多维概念,包括身体机能、心理功能和社会功能,能全面反映人体的健康状况[1].随着人口老龄化时代的到来,老年人生命质量的高低对中国生命质量总体水平、社会稳定情况等方面影响加大.另一方面,城市福利院有望成为新时期城市老年人安度晚年场所的重要选择,因此,对城市福利院老年人生命质量影响因素的研究具有重要意义.在评价武汉市福利院老年人生命质量,研究生命质量与抑郁发生之间关系的基础上,根据研究结果提出合理化建议,以期为政府有关部门提高福利院老年人生命质量提供政策依据.     

上海市某中心社区老年人SF-36量表调查结果分析

近20年来，随着社会经济的发展和医学诊疗技术的进步，人们对健康的要求逐渐提高，生命质量的调查研究得到越来越广泛的支持。生命质量研究的快速进展使很多学者开始对特珠人群进行研究，而随着世界范围的人口快速老龄化，老年人总数不断增加，在生命质量研究中老年人群不可避免地成为重要的研究对象。上海是我国老年人口比例最高，人口老龄化发展速度较快的老年型结构城市，对社区老年人群的生命质量研究显得非常迫切。为了解上海市静安区石门二路社区老年人群的生命质量特作此调查。     

生命质量在社会医学领域的研究进展

随着经济、文化的飞速发展。生命质量越来越引起人们的关注,生命质量已成为衡量国家经济发展水平、社会文明程度的重要标志。如何提高人们的生命质量是社会医学、经济学等领域研究的一个重要课题。综述了生命质量在社会医学领域的研究成果,对生命质量的定义、发展历史、研究进展、测定量表、存在的问题进行了阐述。     

生命质量在社会医学领域的研究进展

随着经济、文化的飞速发展,生命质量越来越引起人们的关注,生命质量已成为衡量国家经济发展水平、社会文明程度的重要标志.如何提高人们的生命质量是社会医学、经济学等领域研究的一个重要课题.综述了生命质量在社会医学领域的研究成果,对生命质量的定义、发展历史、研究进展、测定量表、存在的问题进行了阐述.     

在跨文化生存质量研究中WHOQOL-100的项目功能差异分析

目的 通过项目功能差异(DIF)分析,找出WHOQOL-100量表社会关系领域在香港和阿根廷之间有差异的条目,探讨跨文化生存质量研究中项目功能差异的分析方法,为跨文化生存质量研究提供依据.方法 用等级logistic回归和IRT-ANOVA两种方法对世界卫生组织生存质量研究小组提供的来自香港和阿根廷的WHOQOL-100量表社会关系领域的数据进行DIF分析,以找到WHOQOL-100量表社会关系领域在香港和阿根廷之间有差异的条目.结果 条目F13.4、F14.4、F15.3和F15.4同时被logistic回归和IRT-ANOVA诊断为有DIF,条目F15.2只被IRT-ANOVA诊断为有DIF.结论 在跨文化生存质量研究中存在有DIF的条目,在今后的研究中需要对有DIF的条目进行校正,以使不同文化背景下的生存质量得分可以相互比较.     

健康相关生命质量评价研究与应用现状

健康相关生命质量(HRQOL)是近年来发展起来的一种全新的医学概念,在国外已得到广泛的应用。着重介绍了健康相关生命质量的概况、研究与应用进展,阐述了健康相关生命质量的研究背景,以及新近发展的有关健康相关生命质量的观点和测评工具。对健康相关生命质量评价研究的前景和启示作了相关探讨。     

上海居民慢性病与生命质量关系的研究

目的研究上海居民慢性病患病情况及其对生命质量的影响,分析慢性病与生命质量的关系。方法采用随机、分层、多阶段抽样的方法抽取调查对象,运用自填式问卷调查方式对919名居民进行调查,问卷包括调查对象基本情况问卷及SF-36健康调查量表。结果上海居民慢性病患病率达25.14%,其中高血压患病率最高。有慢性病者的SF-36量表各维度得分均比无慢性病者低,而且慢性病数量影响生命质量,慢性病越多生命质量越差。结论慢性病已经成为一个重要的公共卫生问题,严重损害人们的生命质量。     

大学生生命质量研究进展

生命质量(Quality of Life,QOL),又称生活质量、生存质量、生命素质等.20世纪90年代生命质量的测量和评价已迅速普及到全球,广泛用于评价人类生活的各个方面,形成不同人群的专用量表,成为不可缺少的重要指标和评定工具.     

开展基层健康教育的对策分析

随着社会经济的不断发展,人民生活质量和生活水平的不断提高,生命准备、生命保护、生命质量以及健康水平越来越成为人们关注的热点和社会访视的焦点。无锡市委、市政府提出了“引领全市居民建设平安、富裕、绿色、健康和文化无锡”的策略,健康成为其中的重要一环。     

Cross-cultural evaluation of health status using item response theory: FACT-B comparisons between Austrian and U.S. patients with breast cancer

To make meaningful cross-cultural comparisons of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) or to pool international research data, it is essential to create culturally unbiased measures that detect clinically important differences between patients. We evaluated the measurement properties of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) in 111 Austrian and 144 U.S. patients with breast cancer using item response theory (IRT) methods. A small number of items were identified as displaying statistically significant differential item functioning (DIF), suggesting possible measurement bias. The majority of the items functioned similarly between the two cultural groups. U.S. patients reported lower (worse) physical function and well-being compared with Austrian patients, higher (better) social/family well-being and similar emotional well-being, before and after adjustment for DIF. IRT and related measurement models provide useful methods for assessing cross-cultural equivalence and determining which items can be pooled across languages before analyzing HRQOL data. Determination of clinically significant cross-cultural differences will require additional investigation.     

Cross-cultural adaptation of quality of life indices for oral health

The aim of this study was to evaluate the cross-cultural adaptation of the main quality of life instruments related to oral health. Studies on cross-cultural adaptation of oral health-related quality of life measures were searched for in LILACS and MEDLINE. Twenty-nine articles were analyzed, identifying distinct methods for cross-cultural adaptation of oral health-related quality of life measures. Such differences could jeopardize the future use of these instruments, since the instruments may not adequately represent the health status of the respective target populations.     

Issues in conducting cross-cultural research: implementation of an agreed international procotol designed by the WHOQOL Group for the conduct of focus groups eliciting the quality of life of older adults

Multi-centre and cross-cultural research require the use of common protocols if the results are to be either pooled or compared. All too often adherence to protocols is not discussed in reports and where it is reported poor adherence is frequently noted. This paper discusses the use of international guidelines developed by WHOQOL Field Centres to conduct and report focus groups aimed at eliciting key concepts of quality of life among older adults. This was the first step in the development of the WHOQOL-OLD instrument. Although there was overall adherence to the agreed guidelines, there were some differences in the level of reporting, even after participating Field Centres had the opportunity to explain their reports. The reasons for these discrepancies are reported. It is concluded that because of local situations, it is difficult to achieve identical implementation of multi-centre cross-cultural protocols and that the highest standards of auditing are required if findings are to be compared. Suggestions for how such protocols can be improved are given. An erratum to this article can be found at     

论述食品安全与对策

世界卫生组织（WHO）定义的食品安全，即指食物中有毒、有害因素对人体健康的影响。食品安全除了影响消费者健康外，还与食品进出口贸易、国家声誉，乃至社会安定有着密切关系。近年来，国内外食品安全问题接连不断，食品安全问题已成为当今各国政府、消费者和科技界广为关注的焦点问题之一。重视食品安全已成为衡量人民生活质量、社会管理水平和国家法制建设的一个重要方面，有必要对保证食品安全的公共卫生对策进行研究。     

Ethical decision making in international nursing research

Researchers in international settings must continually examine cross-cultural ethical issues to ensure that their work is ethically sound. In this article, the authors discuss the process of ethical decision making in international nursing research. They draw on research in Ghana during 1999 involving HIV seropositive women to document this process. Referring to this experience, they argue that international research involving human beings must meet two related but distinct ethical tests: It must meet international ethical standards for the protection of human participants but, at the same time, acknowledge the ethical standards related to the institutional setting and cultural environment in which the research takes place.     

Healthy family functioning: a cross-cultural appraisal.

It is increasingly recognized that rapid cultural, social, economic, and technological changes are imposing increasing stress on family structures, traditional values, and the ability to adapt to new environments in different societies. For the purposes of this paper, ”healthy family functioning” is defined in terms of a family unit (however it is conceived in any given culture) effectively coping with cultural, environmental, psychosocial, and socioeconomic stresses throughout the family life cycle. While a review of international literature in the behavioural and biomedical sciences yields little data on comparative studies, there is growing awareness of the need for cooperative international research on family coping mechanisms and determinants of self-reliant communal coping behaviour, as well as more efficient utilization of already available knowledge. After consideration of methodological pitfalls of assessment procedures, there is a presentation of an evolving theory of healthy family functioning with the suggestion that studies of young married couples constitute a particularly promising vehicle for developing needed cooperative cross-cultural research.     

The WHO quality of life assessment instrument (WHOQOL-Bref): The importance of its items for cross-cultural research

One of the fundamental issues in the area of assessment of quality of life is to determine what is important to the individuals' quality of life. This is even more crucial when the instrument is for use in diverse cultural settings. This paper reports on the importance ratings on WHOQOL-Bref items obtained as a part of WHOQOL pilot field trial on 4804 respondents from 15 centres from 14 developed and developing countries using 12 languages. All items were rated as moderately or more important, but this was expected because the items were selected by extensive qualitative research for their salience across the centres. Significant differences on mean importance ratings were found between centres, but rank orders of item for their importance showed highly significant correlations between centres. This was especially true for items in the top and the bottom thirds of the item list arranged by overall importance. Most items were rated as more important by women compared to men and by younger compared to older persons. The results are discussed for their relevance in cross-cultural research on quality of life assessment. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures: Literature review and proposed guidelines

Clinicians and researchers without a suitable health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measure in their own language have two choices: (1) to develop a new measure, or (2) to modify a measure previously validated in another language, known as a cross-cultural adaptation process. We propose a set of standardized guidelines for this process based on previous research in psychology and sociology and on published methodological frameworks. These guidelines include recommendations for obtaining semantic, idiomatic, experiential and conceptual equivalence in translation by using back-translation techniques and committee review, pre-testing techniques and re-examining the weights of scores. We applied these guidelines to 17 cross-cultural adaptation of HRQOL measures identified through a comprehensive literature review. The reporting standards varied across studies but agreement between raters in their ratings of the studies was substantial to almost perfect (weighted κ = 0.66–0.93) suggesting that the guidelines are easy to apply. Further research is necessary in order to delineate essential versus optional steps in the adaptation process.     

A Critical Interdisciplinary Analysis of Culturally Appropriate Research Approach and Practices in Health Care and Social Work

This paper presents a critique of research approaches used in health and social care research with vulnerable and socially disadvantaged groups, and children and young people from minority ethnic backgrounds in Britain. The paper aims to critically examine research processes in health and social care from a psychological perspective and a social work perspective. This paper argues that a conceptual framework that incorporates a cross-cultural perspective for understanding the development of minority ethnic children is critical in order to address omissions in existing theoretical formulations and research in social work and health care theory and research. In the United Kingdom there is a lack of social work research from a cross-cultural perspective. Research knowledge and information from a cross-cultural perspective on minority ethnic family life, minority ethnic children and young people are vital to the health care and social work profession.     

Quality of life and utility measures: clinical parameters for decision-making in health]

In recent decades, the international scientific community has become increasingly interested in the concept of quality of life. One of the most important implications of the focus on quality of life is a shift from "cure" to "a guarantee of a better life" as a health care goal, as well as the inclusion of individuals' preferences for certain health states in the decision-making process with treatments, diagnostic strategies, and health spending. This is especially important as the prevalence of chronic diseases increases as a result of the aging of the population. This piece describes the main concepts and applications related to this new health paradigm, including quality of life itself, utility measures, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and health decision analysis.