Quality of life
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| + | [[Image:The Heart Has Its Reasons by Odilon Redon.jpg |thumb|left|200px|This page '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is part of the [[psychology]] series | ||
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| + | <small>Illustration: ''[[The Heart Has Its Reasons]]'' (c.1887) by [[Odilon Redon]]</small>]] | ||
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| The '''well-being''' or '''quality of life''' of a population is an important concern in [[economics]] and [[political science]]. There are many components to well-being. A large part is [[standard of living]], the amount of money and access to goods and services that a person has; these numbers are fairly easily measured. Others like [[Freedom (political)|freedom]], [[happiness]], [[art]], [[natural environment|environmental]] health, and [[innovation]] are far harder to measure. This has created an inevitable imbalance as programs and policies are created to fit the easily available economic numbers while ignoring the other measures, that are very difficult to plan for or assess. | The '''well-being''' or '''quality of life''' of a population is an important concern in [[economics]] and [[political science]]. There are many components to well-being. A large part is [[standard of living]], the amount of money and access to goods and services that a person has; these numbers are fairly easily measured. Others like [[Freedom (political)|freedom]], [[happiness]], [[art]], [[natural environment|environmental]] health, and [[innovation]] are far harder to measure. This has created an inevitable imbalance as programs and policies are created to fit the easily available economic numbers while ignoring the other measures, that are very difficult to plan for or assess. | ||
Revision as of 16:21, 6 October 2013
Illustration: The Heart Has Its Reasons (c.1887) by Odilon Redon
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The well-being or quality of life of a population is an important concern in economics and political science. There are many components to well-being. A large part is standard of living, the amount of money and access to goods and services that a person has; these numbers are fairly easily measured. Others like freedom, happiness, art, environmental health, and innovation are far harder to measure. This has created an inevitable imbalance as programs and policies are created to fit the easily available economic numbers while ignoring the other measures, that are very difficult to plan for or assess.
Debate on quality of life is millennia-old, with Aristotle giving it much thought in his Nicomachean Ethics and eventually settling on the notion of eudaimonia, a Greek term often translated as happiness, as central. The neologism liveability (or livability), from the adjective liv(e)able, is an abstract noun now often applied to the built environment or a town or city, meaning its overall contribution to the quality of life of inhabitants.
Understanding quality of life is today particularly important in health care, where monetary measures do not readily apply. Decisions on what research or treatments to invest the most in are closely related to their effect on a patient's quality of life.
