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Aging and Quality of Life

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Encyclopedia of Geropsychology
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Synonyms

Happiness; Life satisfaction; Quality of life; Well-being

Definitions

Quality of life – a multidimensional concept that can refer to physical, psychological, and/or social well-being measured at the societal and/or individual level, objectively and/or subjectively.

A Broad Concept

Quality of life is both a multidisciplinary and a multidimensional concept. It can refer to physical well-being, incorporating medical disease, health conditions, and perceived health, to psychological well-being, as indexed by self-esteem and happiness, or to social well-being, capturing how well one functions in their social roles, and connections with family and friends. It can also be conceptualized as a sweeping concept that combines some or all of these particular domains; sometimes referred to as over-all well-being. It can refer to either or both the macro (societal, objective) and micro (individual, subjective) levels.

To illustrate, Anderson (2004) defines five domains of well-being:...

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References

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Correspondence to Neena L. Chappell .

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Chappell, N.L. (2017). Aging and Quality of Life. In: Pachana, N.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-082-7_3

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