Presentation Description:  There has been a tremendous growth of interest in the concept of quality of life in recent years as awareness that medical parameters such as mortality and morbidity are not the only important outcome variables to be considered systematically.  Although necessary and valuable, these outcome measures do not reflect that patient’s overall well-being and do not take into account subjective evaluation of health status and quality of life.  There are several issues and challenges that have arisen in quality of life research which have generated substantial amounts of controversy and debate.  These relate primarily to issues surrounding conceptualization, assessment and measurement, reflecting the lack of consensus on definition, interpretation and methods of measuring quality of life.  This workshop reviewed these issues and sought to provide insight for clinicians and researchers into the investigation of quality of life.

Workshop Facilitators:

Samantha J. Anthony, PhD, MSW, RSW
Social Worker, Transplant and Regenerative Medicine Centre
The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pediatrics
McMaster University, Hamilton

Anne Klassen, BA, DPhil
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Associate Member, Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics and
CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research
McMaster University, Hamilton

Adrienne D. Witol, Psy. D. R. Psych
Psychologist, Pediatric Oncology
Stollery Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
University of Alberta