Quality of life: a possible health index for the elderly.

To assess whether quality of life (QOL) could be employed as an outcome measure of health programs for elderly populations, we evaluated the relationship between subjective assessment of QOL ("morale scale") and objective constituents of active life such as activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADL (IADL) and work status along with determination of active life expectancy (ALE) in a rural district in Japan (n = 13,529). The QOL scale was positively correlated with ADL, IADL and work status but not with age. Validity and test-retest reliability were satisfactory as regards the small subsamples of respondents. ALE of the elderly aged 60 to 64 was 15.2 years, while their life expectancy was 27.1 years. Factors associated with lower ADL included age, lower IADL and joblessness. The QOL measurement and the objective variables can be incorporated into an assessment of the health status of the elderly in addition to conventional indices based on mortality.