Quality of Life in Old Age [electronic resource] : International and Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives / edited by Heidrun Mollenkopf, Alan Walker.

Understanding Quality of Life in Old Age -- International and Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives on Quality of Life in Old Age: Conceptual Issues -- Quality of Life in Older Age: What Older People Say -- Key Aspects of Quality of Life -- Well-being, Control and Ageing: An Empirical Assessment -- Social Resources -- Economic Resources and Subjective Well-Being in Old Age -- Quality of Life in Old Age, Inequality and Welfare State Reform: A Comparison Between Norway, Germany, and England -- Environmental Aspects of Quality of Life in Old Age: Conceptual and Empirical Issues -- The Environments of Ageing in the Context of the Global Quality of Life among Older People Living in Family Housing -- Perceived Environmental Stress, Depression, and Quality of Life in Older, Low Income, Minority Urban Adults -- Ageing and Quality of Life in Asia and Europe: A Comparative Sociological Appraisal -- Ethnicity and Quality of Life -- Health and Quality of Life -- Care-related Quality of Life: Conceptual and Empirical Exploration -- Conclusions and Outlook -- Quality of Life in Old Age: Synthesis and Future Perspectives.

This volume brings together leading researchers on quality of life in old age to focus on one of the most important issues in both gerontology and quality of life studies. Quality of life is a holistic construct and assessed from many different perspectives and by many disciplines. Moreover, the concept of quality of life can be applied to practically all important domains of life. Thus, quality of life research has to include social, environmental, structural, and health related aspects and be approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. Recently research in gerontology has begun to systematically study quality of life - following the WHO dictum 'years have been added to life and now the challenge is to add life to years' - however there are very few texts available on this topic and none of an international and multi-disciplinary nature. Quality of life studies have neglected older people and, given the size and growth of this population, it is time to publish a volume on this topic that systematically pursues a comprehensive perspective and includes theoretical approaches and empirical findings with respect to the most important components of quality of life in old age. For these reasons and the high quality of the authors we have assembled, this will be a seminal text for both gerontology and quality of life researchers.