Measure for Measure: How do Measures of Quality of Life Compare?

This paper is intended to provide some guidance to people wishing to monitor quality in small scale community residential settings. It describes the results of a study in which 14 objective quality of life indicators were conducted in a sample of 14 community-based staffed houses in order to assess the degree of overlap between measures within each of six quality of life domains: activity, autonomy and choice, housing quality, personal development, social and community integration, and social interactions. Overall, there was fairly high overlap within domains. Reasons for the lack of overlap which was sometimes found are discussed