Quality of life of intellectual disabilities valued by themselves and professionals: variables involved

The quality of life in the Intellectual Disabled people assessed by themselves and by their professionals: implicated variables. Improving the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities is a prioritary goal since the implementation of the Law on Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for dependent people. Professionals and users do not always agree with the assessment about the different construct dimensions. Discrepancies may be due to variables not specifically analyzed by the research like the way they live, or the degree of disability that they have. The aim of this study was to analyze the possible discrepancies between the assessments of both informants attending these features. To this objective the INICO-FEAPS scale was applied to 360 adults with intellectual disability and 103 professionals working with them. The results show agreement in 5 of the scale dimensions, like Rights, Physical and Material Well-being; on the other hand we have found large discrepancies in Self-determination and Emotional Well-being. Results are interpretated in light of the kind of needs of the dimensions of quality of life