Use of the terms "Wellbeing" and "Quality of Life" in health sciences: A conceptual framework

Background and Objectives: The assessment of wellbeing is a top priority in health sciences. The aim of this paper is to review the history of the concept of wellbeing and “Quality of Life” (QoL), and to understand the theories and assumptions that guided this field in order to provide a conceptual framework that may eventually facilitate the development of a formal synset (grouping of synonyms and semantically similar terms) of health-related wellbeing Methods: The history of the concept of wellbeing and QoL was reviewed in order to provide a conceptual framework. Results: Huge differences exist on the definition of “Wellbeing” and its relationship with QoL, “Happiness” and “Functioning” in the health context. From a dimensional perspective, health related wellbeing could be regarded as an overarching construct characterised by asymmetrical polarity, where “wellbeing” embeds the concept of “ill-being” as “health” incorporates de concept of “disease”. Conclusions: A common conceptual framework of these terms may eventually facilitate the development of a formal synset of health-related wellbeing. This terminological clarification should be part of a new taxonomy of health-related wellbeing based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework that may facilitate knowledge transfer across different sectors and semantic interoperability for care management and planningThe research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement numbers 223071 (COURAGE in Europe) and 282586 (ROAMER), from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FIS research grant number PS09/00295, and from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation ACI-Promociona (ACI2009-1010 and ACI- 2011-1080). The study was supported by the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos II