[Health-related quality of life.]

With increasing technology in medicine and possibilities to extend life, interest for studying health-related quality of life, i.e. the subjective well-being of patients against the background of their diseases, accidents or treatment, has increased. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a self administered test for health-related quality of life, the IQL (Icelandic Quality of Life), and to show how it differentiates between groups of patients and to encourage the use of such tests in clinical work and research. The reliability and validity of the IQL has been shown to be acceptable.

The IQL had 30 questions and visual analogue items which measure 11 aspects of health-related quality of life. Raw scores for each subscale and for the total test are transformed into T-scores in order to make results easily comparable. The test was administered to a total of 219 persons in four groups of patients and disabled.

The test differentiates the more severely ill and disabled persons from the less severely ill. Each subscale except pain differentiates the groups from each other, showing a specific profile for each group. There is a high correlation between health and social aspects of the test as well as between health and satisfaction with life and well-being. The health-related quality of life of alcoholics was lowest in this study.

The test can be used, both in research and clinical work, in spite of the fact that the current version of it has not been tried out in a representa nottive sample of the population. The test is included in an appendix.

Health is of major importance for the quality of life. Health-related quality of life needs to be studied in order to evaluate the patients fully and their need for health service as well as its effects.