Quality of Life - Exemplified through Patients Living with Atrial Fibrillation

Background: Health-related quality of life is a frequently assessed patient-reported outcome in the current literature on patients living with atrial fibrillation. Originally, quality of life is an abstract, complex concept, and there is no consensus on a final definition of it. Considering overall quality of life to be assessable using a standardised tool may lead to the loss of valuable knowledge about the patients’ individual lived experiences. Aim: To report how the concept of quality of life is being defined and which arguments are given for using the concept in scientific research papers on patients living with atrial fibrillation. Method: Systematic literature study based on analysis of 53 scientific research papers on patients living with atrial fibrillation and inspired by Leif Becker Jensen’s suggestions on how to perform text analysis on a hermeneutical process described by Hans Georg Gadamar. Findings: Three ways of defining the concept of quality of life and five preferred ways of giving reasons for using the concept were found. Thirteen of the papers offered no definition of the concept of quality of life, while 19 papers did not offer arguments for using the concept. Conclusion: Quality of life is seen reduced into assessable parameters like health status. This might lead to the loss of valuable insight into the patients’ subjective perception of their lives. To avoid this reduction in future, it is important to call for clear definitions and arguments for assessing quality of life, and to confront a suggested implicit societal agreement within scientific research.