Quality of Life
Can It Be Measured?

The way in which economic development transforms the material basis of human social interaction and the widespread belief that the advanced industrial countries suffer from some kind of 'social malaise' make it increasingly important to develop good indicators of the hitherto unmeasurable aspects of 'the quality of life.' The interest in developing social indicators which appeared at the end of the 1960s and early '70s reflected a growing scepticism at treating gross national product per capita as synonymous with the quality of life. Not only was it recognised that some aspects of economic growth could not be treated as net additions to welfare, but there were deeper misgivings that in some way economic growth incurred hidden social costs, which threatened to make it counterproductive.

In a recent Discussion Paper, Richard Wilkinson considers the possibility of identifying aspects of a population's health which could be used as indicators of the quality of life.

Previous attempts to develop indicators of the quality of life have foundered upon the essentially subjective character of what is being measured. As we gain more knowledge of the factors affecting health, the possibility arises of using aspects of health as indicators of particular aspects of the quality of life.

Whether health can be used in this way, Wilkinson argues, depends on whether aspects of health can be shown to be sensitive to particular elements of the quality of life. In recent years epidemiological research has made considerable progress towards establishing both the importance of stress as a risk factor in disease and the protective effects of good social relations. From the point of view of social indicators, the doubt is not so much whether health is influenced by the subjective quality of life as whether it is possible to identify aspects of health determined uniquely by these subjective factors, as distinct from the many other influences on health.

As well as discussing these problems, Wilkinson also discusses various trends in health which might tell us more about the way the social structure affects the quality of life for different sections of the population. Examples include the widening gap in life expectancy between the sexes, as well as variation in health among different social classes and among regions. Our understanding of these issues is as yet imperfect.


Health, Economic Structure and Social Indicators
Richard G Wilkinson

Discussion Paper no.17, May 1984 (HR)