This paper traces the development of health-related Quality of Life instruments over the last half century. It identifies the emergence of key components of quality of life measurement in other health status questionnaires between about 1950 and 1980 and their formalization in Quality of Life instruments in the mid 1980s. The common developmental thread that linked these Quality of Life instruments and their precursors was the identification of 'distal symptoms' that represented the impact of illness beyond its immediate bodily manifestations. The measurement of distal symptoms through Quality of Life instruments also served to detach symptoms from their customary patho-physiological referent. Other contemporary examples of these free-floating symptoms reinforce the argument that the nature and meaning of symptoms has been transformed over recent decades.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 March 2015.
All research outputs
#16,580,157
of 25,373,627 outputs
Outputs from Sociology of Health & Illness
#1,743
of 2,115 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#75,289
of 86,701 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Sociology of Health & Illness
#10
of 15 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,373,627 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 34th percentile – i.e., 34% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,115 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.0. This one is in the 17th percentile – i.e., 17% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 86,701 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 12th percentile – i.e., 12% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 15 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 33rd percentile – i.e., 33% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
