QUALITY OF LIFE, HEALTH, AND VALUATION OF LIFE BY ELDERS

老年慢性病患者的生活质量（QOL） 研究了它对生命价值的贡献 （VOL）。 VOL是一个人的主观经验价值， 现在的生活，由众多的积极和消极的加权 人和环境的特征。 这项研究将 扩展关于健康效用或健康状态偏好的现有研究 通过（a）使用70岁以上的老年人;（B）调查 健康状况不佳的人与健康状况不佳的人;（c） 测量VOL的积极特征的贡献以及 传统的负面特征。 400名受试者将从 阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦和费城老年中心社区：出院 住院患者、门诊患者和非患者，按性别、种族分层， 和社会经济地位（每个小区5个S）。 他们将被招募， 排除认知障碍，但代表广泛的 身体健康 标准的基于访谈的评估工具将 用于测量生活质量和心理健康以及新的 设计用于测量VOL：预期寿命年数、VOL量表和 开放式访谈，引出对未来、现在和未来的态度。 未来的目标和“个人项目”。“具体假设和 基于Lawton心理幸福感结构模型与VOL 美好生活的模式将受到考验。 一条“积极的道路”， “负路径”假设为独立的贡献， 一项前瞻性队列研究将 在受试者亚组上进行。 健康下降的影响与 将测试延长寿命治疗偏好的健康稳定性 160名存活24个月的受试者。 实际使用寿命延长 死亡者的治疗将被确定， 这种使用的预测器确定。

Quality of life (QOL) in older people with chronic illnesses will be investigated in terms of how it contributes to the valuation of life (VOL). VOL is the subjectively experienced worth of the person's present life, weighted by the multitude of positive and negative features in both the person and the environment. The research will extend existing research on health utility or healthy-state preferences by (a) using elders ages 70+; (b) investigating differences in VOL among those who are in versus those not in states of compromised health; (c) measuring the contributions of positive features of VOL as well as the traditional negative features. 400 subjects will be recruited from the Albert Einstein and Philadelphia Geriatric Center community: Discharged inpatients, outpatients, and nonpatients, stratified by gender, race, and socioeconomic status (5 Ss per cell). They will be recruited to exclude the cognitively impaired but to represent a broad range of physical health. Standard interviewed-based assessment instruments will be used to measure QOL and psychological well-being plus new ones designed to measure VOL: Years of desired life, a VOL scale, and an open-ended interview eliciting attitudes toward the future, present and future goals, and "personal projects." Specific hypotheses and a structural model of psychological well-being and VOL based on Lawton's model of the good life will be tested. A "positive path" and a "negative path" are hypothesized to make independent contributions to psychological well-being and to VOL. A prospective cohort study will be performed on subgroups of subjects. The effect of health decline vs. health stability on Life Extending Treatment Preferences will be tested on 160 subjects who survive for 24 months. Actual use of life extending treatment will be determined for those who die, and QOL and VOL predictors of such use determined.