WHOQOL-BREF Quality-of-Life Assessment

Introduction:

The World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) is a rigorously validated instrument that asks people to rate their perceived wellbeing. It condenses 100 original WHOQOL items into 26 questions spanning physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains. Scores let individuals and researchers compare subjective health across groups, track interventions, and highlight areas needing support.

This interactive assessment lets you answer all 26 items in one sitting through a privacy-respecting reactive engine. Each response, scored one to five, is reverse-scored where specified, then the raw domain totals are transformed to a unified zero-to-one-hundred scale. The charting layer immediately visualises domain strengths while an overall mean summarises perceived quality-of-life.

College wellness centres, workplace programmes, and personal journals can use these scores to monitor wellbeing over time and evaluate lifestyle changes. Interpret fluctuations cautiously; acute illness, recent stress, or cultural context may influence answers more than objective health shifts. Results do not constitute a clinical diagnosis.

Technical Details:

The assessment derives four domain scores—Physical, Psychological, Social, and Environment—by summing item ratings, adjusting reverse-keyed questions, and normalising results to a 0–100 scale. Normalisation removes the domain’s minimum possible score, divides by its range, and multiplies by 100, enabling direct comparison despite differing item counts. The overall score is the arithmetic mean of the four domains.

Higher bands suggest better perceived wellbeing. Because scores are subjective, track changes over time rather than comparing once-off values between individuals.

• Rating (1–5) – respondent’s choice per item.
• Reverse-keyed – items where lower numbers indicate better wellbeing; values are transformed to 6 − rating.
• Domain total – sum of adjusted ratings per domain.
• Normalised score – domain total converted to a 0–100 scale.

• Assumes linear distance between Likert points.
• Interprets all domain items as equally weighted.
• Ignores cultural differences in wellbeing perception.
• Not validated for children under 12 years.

• Missing answers yield zeros and may depress domain averages.
• Extreme responding (all fives or ones) skews overall score.
• Reverse-key logic fails if a question is re-worded offline.
• Browser zoom can compress the radar axes, impacting readability.

WHOQOL-BREF was field-tested in 23 countries (WHOQOL Group, 1998) and has since been validated in diverse clinical and community samples.

No personal data leaves your device, aligning with GDPR principles of data minimisation.

Step-by-Step Guide:

Follow these steps to obtain your scores.

1. Reflect on the past two weeks before answering.
2. Select one rating per question, moving through the side list at your preferred pace.
3. Review the progress bar; unanswered items are highlighted for quick navigation.
4. When all responses are complete, view your radar chart and overall score.
5. Discuss any concerns with a qualified professional.

FAQ:

Glossary:

Domain

One of four life areas: Physical, Psychological, Social, Environment.

Likert scale

Five-point agreement or intensity rating scale.

Reverse-keyed item

Question where lower numbers indicate better wellbeing and must be inverted.

Normalisation

Rescaling raw totals to a common 0–100 range.

Radar chart

Polygonal plot displaying multiple variables on radial axes.