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What is a good life? Selecting capabilities to assess women's quality of life in rural Malawi

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  • Greco, Giulia
  • Skordis-Worrall, Jolene
  • Mkandawire, Bryan
  • Mills, Anne

Abstract

There is growing interest in using Sen's Capability Approach to assess quality of life and to evaluate social policies. This paper describes the formative stages of developing a quality of life measure: the selection of the relevant capabilities. This measure is intended to provide a more comprehensive outcome measure for the evaluation of complex interventions such as Maimwana womens' groups, a community based participatory intervention to improve maternal health in rural Malawi.

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  • Greco, Giulia & Skordis-Worrall, Jolene & Mkandawire, Bryan & Mills, Anne, 2015. "What is a good life? Selecting capabilities to assess women's quality of life in rural Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 69-78.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:130:y:2015:i:c:p:69-78
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.01.042
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    1. Paul Anand & Swati Saxena & Rolando Gonzales Martinez & Hai-Anh H. Dang, 2020. "Can Women’s Self-help Groups Contribute to Sustainable Development? Evidence of Capability Changes from Northern India," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 137-160, April.
    2. Giulia Greco & Paula Lorgelly & Inthira Yamabhai, 2016. "Outcomes in Economic Evaluations of Public Health Interventions in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries: Health, Capabilities and Subjective Wellbeing," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(S1), pages 83-94, February.
    3. Guang-Bin Qu & Tian-Yu Zhao & Bo-Wei Zhu & Gwo-Hshiung Tzeng & Shan-Lin Huang, 2019. "Use of a Modified DANP-mV Model to Improve Quality of Life in Rural Residents: The Empirical Case of Xingshisi Village, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, January.
    4. Kibel, Mia & Vanstone, Meredith, 2017. "Reconciling ethical and economic conceptions of value in health policy using the capabilities approach: A qualitative investigation of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 97-104.
    5. Paul Anand & Laurence S. J. Roope & Anthony J. Culyer & Ron Smith, 2020. "Disability and multidimensional quality of life: A capability approach to health status assessment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 748-765, July.
    6. Kate Sollis & Ben Edwards, 2022. "Measuring What Matters: Drawing on a Participatory Wellbeing Framework and Existing Data to Assess Child Wellbeing Outcomes Over Time," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 543-599, November.
    7. Hareth Al‐Janabi, 2018. "Do capability and functioning differ? A study of U.K. survey responses," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 465-479, March.
    8. Giulia Ferrari, 2022. "What is wellbeing for rural South African women? Textual analysis of focus group discussion transcripts and implications for programme design and evaluation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Giulia Greco, 2018. "Setting the Weights: The Women’s Capabilities Index for Malawi," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 457-478, January.
    10. Coast, Joanna, 2018. "A history that goes hand in hand: Reflections on the development of health economics and the role played by Social Science & Medicine, 1967–2017," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 227-232.
    11. Sollis, Kate & Yap, Mandy & Campbell, Paul & Biddle, Nicholas, 2022. "Conceptualisations of wellbeing and quality of life: A systematic review of participatory studies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    12. Kate Sollis & Budy P. Resosudarmo & Firman Witoelar & Riswandi Riswandi & Julius A. Mollet, 2023. "Migrant Status and the Wellbeing Gap: The Case of an Ethnically Diverse, High-Conflict Area in Indonesia," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 1781-1811, June.
    13. Matthys, Marie-Luise & Acharya, Sushant & Khatri, Sanjaya, 2021. "“Before cardamom, we used to face hardship”: Analyzing agricultural commercialization effects in Nepal through a local concept of the Good Life," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    14. Paula Lorgelly, 2015. "Choice of Outcome Measure in an Economic Evaluation: A Potential Role for the Capability Approach," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 33(8), pages 849-855, August.
    15. Paul Mark Mitchell & Samantha Husbands & Sarah Byford & Philip Kinghorn & Cara Bailey & Tim J. Peters & Joanna Coast, 2021. "Challenges in developing capability measures for children and young people for use in the economic evaluation of health and care interventions," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(9), pages 1990-2003, September.
    16. Robinson, Jude & Chiumento, Anna & Kasujja, Rosco & Rutayisire, Theoneste & White, Ross, 2022. "The ‘good life’, personal appearance, and mental health of Congolese refugees in Rwanda and Uganda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    17. Joanna Coast, 2019. "Assessing capability in economic evaluation: a life course approach?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 20(6), pages 779-784, August.
    18. Joanna Coast & Cara Bailey & Rosanna Orlando & Kathy Armour & Rachel Perry & Louise Jones & Philip Kinghorn, 2018. "Adaptation, Acceptance and Adaptive Preferences in Health and Capability Well-Being Measurement Amongst Those Approaching End of Life," The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Springer;International Academy of Health Preference Research, vol. 11(5), pages 539-546, October.
    19. Leila Ardestani & Shahla Choobchian & Hassan Sadighi & Hossein Azadi & Ants-Hannes Viira & Vjekoslav Tanaskovik & Alishir Kurban, 2022. "Investigating Subjective and Objective Quality of Life in Rural Areas: the Case of Tehran Province in Iran," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 671-702, April.
    20. Paul Mark Mitchell & Tracy E. Roberts & Pelham M. Barton & Joanna Coast, 2017. "Applications of the Capability Approach in the Health Field: A Literature Review," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 345-371, August.
    21. Ross, Ian & Cumming, Oliver & Dreibelbis, Robert & Adriano, Zaida & Nala, Rassul & Greco, Giulia, 2021. "How does sanitation influence people's quality of life? Qualitative research in low-income areas of Maputo, Mozambique," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).

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