Calidad de vida y salud, instrumentos de medición

The traditional Health Care approach is focused on lesion repair and the relief or removal of disease. A new approach, which considers health to be multidimensional and includes in its aims patients' proper functions and well being, is being studied throughout the world. This different approach shows that health professionals need to understand the concepts of quality of life as well as quality of life in its relation to health. At the same time, they should know how to manage adequate psychometric instruments to perform measurements. For any research at least four instruments have to be applied to obtain measurements: 1) General Health, 2) Mental Health, 3) Cognitive Skills, and 4) Specific for any Particular Disease. Data obtained from these measurements is very useful in clinical work to perform prevention, diagnosis, assessment of instituted treatment and rehabilitation progress. A very important fact to be considered is that quality of life data humanizes health care by taking in account patients' perceptions of their health experiences.