Quality of Life Overview Video (2:08 runtime)
Data captured by TSOLife over the years has established a clear link between a resident’s Quality of Life (QoL) and their Length of Stay (LOS) in a senior living community. This is why we interview residents; learning about their hobbies, interests, concerns, and perceptions paints a picture of how they feel about their overall life and well-being.
Utilizing a trio of assessments – the evidence-based self-rated Health (srH) and self-rated Quality of life (srQOL) metrics, and the research-grade Brunnsviken Brief Quality of Life Scale (BBQ) – TSOLife can recommend programs and engagement opportunities that are tailored to improve each resident’s quality of life. This can potentially lead to lower depression rates, reduced care costs, and increased longevity.
This article contains high-level information about these assessments, the purpose of QoL, and the part that QoL data plays in elevating your community.
What Are the Quality of Life Assessments?
TSOLife utilizes a trio of assessments to analyze and explore a resident’s quality of life:
- Brunnsviken Brief Quality of Life Assessment (BBQ): Asks about the importance and satisfaction of six areas of life: creativity, leisure, learning, friendship, how I view myself, how I view my life. 12 questions total.
- Self-Rated Quality of Life Assessment (srQOL): Single-question asking how a resident rates their overall quality of life.
- Self-Rated Health Assessment (srH): Single-question asking how a resident rates their overall health.
For more in-depth information on these assessments, please visit the Quality of Life Assessments Index.
How Do Quality of Life Scores Help?
These assessments help to identify areas of a resident's life that they have ranked with low satisfaction scores but high importance ratings, as these represent potential targets for intervention. It's important to focus on strategies to enhance satisfaction in these high-priority areas.
If not all questions of the BBQ Assessment are answered, the resident’s score can appear artificially low. It is important to review low scores for missing sections, or to verify that sections are indeed scoring low in satisfaction and high in importance. Reassess periodically to track changes and adjust interventions accordingly.
What Will I Use the Quality of Life Scores For?
A number of things! Understanding Quality of Life and the impact on your community can support your residents in a number of ways:
- Facilitate social connections through friend-matching.
- Personalize resident engagement plans based on their unique preferences and needs.
- Proactively identify and address potential health concerns.
- Create opportunities for meaningful engagement based on interests.
- Foster a sense of community through tailored group activities.
- Drive measurable improvements in quality of life and community satisfaction scores.
- Transforms community culture from reactive problem-solving to proactive engagement strategies.
Our Platform Has QoL Data. Now What?
The first step is to identify which resident you want to focus your engagement efforts on. Some areas of focus may be:
- Residents with low Quality of Life scores.
- Residents who are new move-ins.
- Residents who have been flagged as an area of focus by the care team.
You can identify residents with lower QoL scores by navigating to the Quality of Life dashboard. From the main navigation menu, select Resident Insights > Quality of Life. Scroll down to the Average BBQ Score by Area and click the View Top and Bottom 10 Residents button.
After choosing a resident to work with, you can navigate to their profile by clicking the their name. Scroll down to the BBQ Area Performance and Breakdown where you can click the Details button of any domain within the Areas of Improvement section.
From here, you can create opportunities with like-minded residents. Check out Creating Opportunities Based on Quality of Life Scores for more information.
Remember: Friendship Is Key!
"Friendship" and "Leisure" are the most correlated Brunnsviken Quality of Life variable to Self-Rated Quality of Life. Friendship is also rated the highest for importance for residents.
At the same time, "Friendship" and "Learning" are the two areas with the biggest discrepancy between importance and satisfaction (high importance and low satisfaction), meaning for most residents these will be the areas of focus.
Residents ranked "Friendship" more important than "Creative," and "Creative" is the only category where residents ranked higher in satisfaction than in importance.
Actionable Insights
With TSOLife’s Actionable Insights, you receive personalized reminders and activity suggestions. From birthday and move-in anniversary notifications to content tailored to improve your residents' quality of life, this feature makes it easy to personalize your engagement and enrich your experience within the community.
Insights are emailed daily, but can also be found by navigating to Resident Insights > Actionable Insights. Print and share Actionable Insights with your team!
Jump to another article to learn more about Quality of Life:
Quality of Life Dashboard Walkthrough (Community Level)
Quality of Life Assessments Index
Tips for Quality of Life Questions
Creating Opportunities Based on Quality of Life Scores
Accessing Quality of Life Scores from the Resident Profile