World Health Organization Quality of Life — BREF

WHOQOL-BREF

health sciencespsychologysocial sciencesFree for research use

A 26-item abbreviated version of the WHOQOL-100, measuring quality of life across four domains (Physical Health, Psychological, Social Relationships, Environment) plus two overall items on general QoL and general health. Response anchors vary by item (intensity, frequency, capacity, evaluation).

Items

Response format

5-point Likert scale (anchors vary by item)

Version

1.0

Subscales

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Quality of life was assessed using the 26-item WHOQOL-BREF (WHOQOL Group, 1998), which yields four domain scores (Physical Health, Psychological, Social Relationships, Environment) on a 0–100 transformed scale, plus two single-item indicators of overall QoL and general health. Items 3, 4, and 26 were reverse-scored prior to domain aggregation.

Reliability & validation

notes

Social Relationships alpha is typically the lowest because the subscale has only three items.

Validation population

Cross-cultural field trial (N = 11,830 across 23 countries)

Cronbach's α

[object Object]

Subscales

Overall Quality of Life and General HealthPhysical HealthPsychologicalSocial RelationshipsEnvironment

Response anchors

Varies by item — see items for specific anchors

Known limitations

Anchors vary across items (intensity, frequency, capacity, evaluation) — administer with the exact anchors from the WHOQOL Users Manual. Requires registration with WHO before use. Social Relationships domain has only three items, so its internal consistency is typically modest. Culturally adapted translations should cite the relevant validation study for that language version.

Original citation

WHOQOL Group (1998). Development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment. Psychological Medicine, 28(3), 551-558.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291798006667

Use WHOQOL-BREF in Folio Surveyor

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Library entry verified January 2024. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.