Quality of Life in a Broader Perspective: Does ASCOT Reflect the Capability Approach?

Overview

Journal Qual Life Res

Specialties Pharmacology
Rehabilitation Medicine

Date 2017 Dec 16

PMID 29243043

Citations 7

Authors

M S Van Loon

K M van Leeuwen

R W J G Ostelo

J E Bosmans

G A M Widdershoven

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: Economic evaluation of services and interventions in care services tends to focus on quality of life(QoL) based on health-related measures such as EQ5D, with a major focus on health and functioning. The Capability Approach (CA) provides an alternative framework for measuring QoL and challenges some of the conventional issues in the current practice of measurement of QoL. The Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) aims to measure social care-related QoL in a broad sense. This article investigates whether and, if so, how the ASCOT addresses issues put on the agenda by the CA.

Methods: Literature analysis concerning theoretical assumptions and arguments of CA and ASCOT.

Results: The Capability Approach (CA) puts three issues on the agenda regarding QoL. First, the focus of evaluation should not be on functioning, but on freedom of choice. Second, evaluation should be critical about adaptive preferences, which entail that people lower expectations in situations of limited possibilities. Third, evaluation should not only address health, but also other domains of life. Our analysis shows that freedom of choice is reflected in the response option 'as I want' in the ASCOT questionnaire. The problem of adaptive preferences is countered in the ASCOT by developing a standard based on preferences of the general population. Third, the ASCOT contains several domains of life.

Conclusions: We conclude that the CA and the ASCOT contribute to the discussion on QoL, and that the ASCOT operationalizes core assumptions of the CA, translating the issues raised by the CA in a practical way.

Citing Articles

Mood Associated With Health- and Social Care-Related Quality of Life in Patients With Advanced Multiple Sclerosis.

Ouwerkerk M, Rietberg M, van der Linden M, Uitdehaag B, van Wegen E, de Groot V Int J MS Care. 2024; 26(Q3):199-206.

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Exploratory factor analysis and Rasch analysis to assess the structural validity of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit Proxy version (ASCOT-Proxy) completed by care home staff.

Rand S, Towers A, Allan S, Webster L, Palmer S, Carroll R Qual Life Res. 2024; 33(6):1555-1567.

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Face Validity of Four Preference-Weighted Quality-of-Life Measures in Residential Aged Care: A Think-Aloud Study.

Engel L, Kosowicz L, Bogatyreva E, Batchelor F, Devlin N, Dow B Patient. 2023; 16(6):655-666.

PMID: 37803217 PMC: 10570159. DOI: 10.1007/s40271-023-00647-6.

What Quality-of-Life Dimensions Are Most Important to Older Adults from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds Receiving Aged Care Services? An Exploratory Study.

Hutchinson C, Cleland J, Walker R, Ratcliffe J Geriatrics (Basel). 2022; 7(6).

PMID: 36547280 PMC: 9778310. DOI: 10.3390/geriatrics7060144.

Cost-Utility of the eHealth Application 'Oncokompas', Supporting Incurably Ill Cancer Patients to Self-Manage Their Cancer-Related Symptoms: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Schuit A, Holtmaat K, Coupe V, Eerenstein S, Zijlstra J, Eeltink C Curr Oncol. 2022; 29(9):6186-6202.

PMID: 36135055 PMC: 9497666. DOI: 10.3390/curroncol29090486.

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