Quality of life in dementia: an ethical and philosophical perspective.

Quality of life is crucial when thinking of interventions in dementia. Over the last 10 years huge efforts have been made to develop methods of measuring quality of life. The development of such measures faces significant conceptual and methodological difficulties. Despite the advances made in this field, conceptual questions remain. Indeed, the conceptual limits to the measurement of quality of life lead the author to conclude that quality of life, as such, is not measurable. Nevertheless, specific aspects of quality of life can be measured but as the constructs broaden, the need for a phenomenological approach increases.