A systematic review of analyses of the concept of quality of life in nursing: exploring how form of analysis affects understanding.

Quality of life is central to nursing and commonly aimed at the preservation of health-related quality of life. Few rigorous studies address concept development of health-related quality of life. The purpose of this article was to explore quality of life as it is used in nursing by systematically reviewing published concept development. The results found the need for a more robust and rigorous study of the concept and suggest that forms of analysis be used that explicitly explore the concept in context using empirical data along with a broad and clearly defined literature.