The quality of life of people with mental retardation: in search of an adequate approach.

There is a lack of instruments that measure the quality of life of people with mental retardation. These types of instruments could be used in order to give an indication of the quality of care they receive. At the moment we are developing an instrument that measures quality of life. Our first task is to find an adequate definition of 'quality of life'. In this article an attempt is made to define this term as it relates to people with mental retardation. Starting from literature in the field of disabilities, reflections in the social sciences and philosophical analysis, a combined approach is adopted, according to which quality of life consists of specific objective and subjective factors.