The jungle of quality of life: Mapping measures and meanings for elders.

The literature on quality of life (QOL) can be described as a jungle: vast, dense and difficult to penetrate, especially for those entering the field without a specialist QOL background. While QOL as a term is entwined in an extensive body of work from many disciplines and covering diverse perspectives, it has been most extensively documented and operationalised within the domains of health-related socioeconomic drivers and is largely quantitative in nature. Subjective and qualitative measurement is less fully developed and documented.