QoLHHI

About the QoLHHI

The Quality of Life for Homeless and Hard-to-House Individuals (QoLHHI) Inventory is an interview-guided measure of subjective quality of life in individuals who are homeless or vulnerably housed. There are two components to the QoLHHI: (1) The QoLHHI MDT Scale consists of up to 10 items developed using Michalos’ (1985) Multiple Discrepancies Theory (MDT) that can be applied to different life areas (e.g., health, living conditions, financial situation), and (2) The QoLHHI Impact Survey consists of a series of items designed to measure the impact of different aspects of a life area (e.g., Health: stress, pain, alcohol use, medication). The QoLHHI is a comprehensive measure of QoL that is flexible enough that only some sections of the measure may be administered when needed. Content of the QoLHHI is based on interviews with service providers and focus groups with homeless and vulnerably housed adults and youth as well as pilot research.

Current Research

Several sections of the QoLHHI have been completed, while other sections are still in the development phase. Some sections of both the QoLHHI MDT Scale and the QoLHHI Impact Survey have been used in a CIHR-funded 5-year longitudinal study of homelessness, housing, and health across Canada.

Using the QoLHHI

The QoLHHI is available for use free-of-charge for research, program evaluation, and service provision purposes. The copyright of the measure remains with the authors and the QoLHHI should not be altered or adapted without their written permission. This restriction does not include adaptation by selecting only some sections or items for use, as this is considered an acceptable use of the QoLHHI (see page 4 of the QoLHHI Manual and Administration Guide).

QoLHHI Materials

The following QoLHHI materials are currently available in PDF format (click on the links to download the files):

• QoLHHI Manual and Administration Guide. This document describes the development of the QoLHHI and provides guidelines for administration and scoring. It should be read before using the QoLHHI. To obtain updated scoring guidelines for the QoLHHI, please contact Dr. Anita Hubley

• QoLHHI Impact Response Card
• QoLHHI MDT Response Booklet
• QoLHHI Impact Health section
• QoLHHI Impact Living Conditions section
• QoLHHI Impact Financial Situation section
• QoLHHI Impact Social Support section
• QoLHHI MDT Health section
• QoLHHI MDT Housing Situation section
• QoLHHI MDT Financial Situation section
• QoLHHI MDT Social Support section
• QoLHHI MDT Emotional Support section

If you are using or planning to use the QoLHHI in your research or your work, please let Dr. Hubley know!

QoLHHI References

Hubley, A. M., Russell, L. B., Gadermann, A. M., & Palepu. A. (2009). Quality of Life for Homeless and Hard-to-House Individuals (QoLHHI) Inventory: Administration and Scoring Manual. Vancouver, BC: Authors.

Relevant publications:

Hubley, A. M., MacLaurin, B., Farrell, S., Gadermann, A. M., Turner, A., Milaney, K., & Muckle, W. (Oct., 2015). Measuring health-related quality of life in homeless and vulnerably housed adults: A validation study. Accepted for presentation at the annual conference of the International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL), Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Russell, L. B., & Hubley, A. M. (Oct., 2015). Content validation of a quality of life measure for individuals who are homeless and vulnerably housed. Accepted for presentation at the annual conference of the International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL), Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Hubley, A. M. (2014). Quality of Life in Homeless and Hard-to-House Individuals Inventory (QoLHHI). In A. C. Michalos (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer.

Gadermann, A.M., Hubley, A. M., Russell, L. B., & Palepu, A. (2013). Subjective health-related quality of life in homeless and vulnerably housed individuals and its relationship with self-reported physical and mental health status. Social Indicators Research.

Palepu, A., Hubley, A. M., Russell, L. B., Gadermann, A. M., & Chinni, M. (2012). Quality of life themes in Canadian adults and street youth who are homeless or hard-to-house: A multi-site focus group study. Health & Quality of Life Outcomes, 10: 93, doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-10-93.

Russell, L. B., Gadermann, A., Hubley, A. M., & Palepu, A. (Oct., 2008). A new measure of quality of life: Results from a pilot study of the health section of the quality of life for homeless and hard-to-house individuals (QoLHHI) survey. Presented at the International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH), Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Russell, L. B., Hubley, A. M., Gadermann, A., & Palepu, A. (Oct., 2008). Challenges in the development of new instruments for non-mainstream populations: Some examples from the QoLHHI impact survey. Presented at the International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH), Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Hubley, A. M. (Dec., 2007). Validity and quality of life measurement with non-mainstream groups: Psychological and health perspectives. Invited panel presentation to the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies Conference, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.

Hubley, A. M. (Oct., 2007). Measuring and understanding quality of life in non-mainstream populations in an urban setting: Individuals who are homeless, hard-to-house, and/or drug addicted. Invited panel presentation (opening session) to the International Society for Quality of Life Research Conference, Toronto, ON, Canada.