Quality of Life

Quality of Life

Quality of Life

Introduction

Human beings are not only characterized on the basis of their economic or financial status, but there are a number of other factors involved that determine the actual status of an individuals and the extent of his well being. All these factors are together known as the quality of life, and play an essential part in deciding the actual condition and physical as well as mental health of an individual. The following paragraph would highlight the concept of Quality of Life and would also focus on the factors that can play active part in affecting the Quality of Life.

Quality of Life

The term Quality of Life is basically used to fort he evaluation of general well being of human beings and the society as a whole, which implies that the term is utilized in vast contexts. The major contexts which play vital role in determining the quality of life include: international development, politics and healthcare. It is eminent to mention here that the concept of quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which basically deals with income of the individual or the country.

According a precise definition, quality of life is defined as the extent to which an individual enjoys the important possibilities of his or her life. This implies that the quality of life of individuals is determined by their status, who they are and how they respond to the environment (Haas and Levin, 2006). This include freedom, happiness and whether or not an individual achieves his personal goals , aspirations and hopes that he had confided with the world. It also deals with the concepts of being, belonging and becoming, thus deals with the particular outlook of an individual towards life and how he deals with it.

Factors Affecting Quality of Life

Keeping in view the importance of Quality of Life, it is eminent to have an understanding of the factors affecting quality of life and the various ways in which they can play their part. As mentioned earlier, a number of factors are continuously playing their part in affecting the quality of life of an individual, however, some of the most essential and significant factors include the built environment, physical and mental health, recreation, education, leisure time and social belongingness. In addition, human rights, freedom and happiness also play an essential role in determining the quality of life of an individual. It must be noted that some of the factors mentioned above are tangible, like the built environment, physical and mental health and education, while other are completely intangible and relative terms, including happiness and freedom (Blaylock, 2006). Human rights, education and leisure time can also be calculated and thus fall under the category of tangible factors. The following paragraphs would highlight the importance of each of these factors and how they play their part in determining the quality of life of an individual:

Built Environment determines the surroundings and the atmosphere in which an individual lives, and thus ...