Testing a Tool to Scale Quality of Life Indicators in Tanzania

Abstract

A quality of life questionnaire utilizing scaled response codes is created for implementation in a predominantly rural African setting. The authors design a concrete tool using color as a semantic differential as a means to ease semantic shifts and enhance participant comprehension. Although they find a fairly even response distribution and no significant clustering among a sample of questions for which the tool is used, their interviewers report that some groups have more difficulty than others and suggest alternative or complementary approaches. This article describes the authors' experience with the utility of their tool within the parameters of this study.