Concept Analysis of Women’s Quality of Life: A Hybrid Model

Many factors affect desirable quality of life. Regarding the subjective and multivariate nature of the quality of life concept and the need for attention in different cultures and groups of the society, the present study was performed to analyze the concept of quality of life from women's perspectives.

To analyze the quality of women's life, Schwartz-Barcott and Kim's hybrid model was used. At theoretical stage, in order to deeply analyze and redefine the concept of women's quality of life, 571 articles from available and reputable databases without a year limit and with keywords of life quality and women were searched in Persian and English. At practical stage, 40 Iranian women living in Tehran were interviewed. Then, the text of interviews was handwritten and analyzed using Zhang's content analysis method. Finally, the similarities and differences of definitions obtained from the previous two stages were evaluated and a general analysis was performed.

In the final analysis, women's quality of life was defined as follows: “The quality of life from women's perspectives is a subjective concept and expressed as the sense of happiness that they experience it in their lives by having peace of mind in life, satisfaction with health due to responsibility for health and communicating with themselves, God, environment, and others, sense of security, and understanding of the comprehensive support received to have an ideal life.

Based on the findings, paying attention to the status of women in the field of comprehensive support, sense of security, health responsibility, and communication can bring useful and significant results to improve the quality of women's life.