Setting up a Health-related Quality of Life Vocabulary

Abstract

Quality of life (QoL) aspects of health have been gaining increasing attention in recent years. Despite their essential contribution to the overall health of a person, QoL is still less understood than other health conditions. While it is possible to locate text mining approaches to extract and annotate verbal behaviours and comments with regard to specific health conditions, the same is not true to Perceived Health Impacts related to Quality of Life (H-QoL). This paper explores the usefulness and potential of the World Health Organisation Quality of Life Instrument (WHOQoL-100) as a step towards the creation of a Health-related Quality of Life Vocabulary. In doing so, this study validates a vocabulary of 15 concepts based on the WHOQoL-100 assessment instrument with six medical professionals and contributes a curated dictionary of 333 terms.