Quality of life cards — a novel way to measure quality of life in the elderly

Taking into account the multiple factors/dimensions that contribute to the concept of quality of life (QoL), a pack of cards (80 cards) was developed and validated in 30 elderly patients, fifteen from the continuing care setting and fifteen from the day hospital. Twenty of the 80 cards contained words or statements indicating positive or negative affect, 20 cards were based on positive or negative life experience and 40 cards dealt with satisfaction or happiness or dissatisfaction or unhappiness relating to areas of personal or family life. The score obtained using the QoL cards correlated significantly (r = −0.96, P < 0.0001) with the score obtained on the delighted-terrible scale and with a result obtained using an analogue scale (r = 0.93, P < 0.0001). Test to retest reliability in 11 patients revealed an ‘r’ value of 0.99 (P < 0.0001). In addition, high correlations were noted between the total score obtained using the 80 QoL cards and the subscale scores for ‘affect’, ‘life experience’ and ‘satisfaction/happiness’ in the 30 patients studied initially and in the 20 patients studied subsequently.