The Wellbeing Thermometer: A Novel Framework for Measuring Wellbeing

Abstract

Background: In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to acknowledge the effect the working environment has on health professionals in the UK. Several institutions have produced reports either commenting on the current status of the situation or pointing to a future direction. Still, practically it is unclear how much difference these intentions have made to the lives of health professionals. Method: One of the main obstacles in advancing this agenda is that without knowing what well-being is and how to measure it, a person cannot modify it. A multidisciplinary team of experts set as a task to develop a new theoretical framework of well-being accompanied by a tool to measure it hence affording the individual better knowledge and more control of their state of wellbeing. The development of this framework took three steps: understanding the concept of wellbeing from existing literature by reviewing all available tools to identify gaps and weaknesses, constructing a new framework for wellbeing and devising a set of questions to measure it. Results: The result of this work was a framework suggesting that wellbeing is determined by the domains of health, thoughts emotions, spiritual and social along with 25 questions (five for each domain) the answers to which are given an indication of a person's wellbeing status. Conclusion: The current models of wellbeing are limited. They are grounded either on concepts of mental illness such as major depressive disorder or single functions such as psychological or social. We propose that a new framework for wellbeing is required which is more holistic to enable professionals to develop "Wellbeing Intelligence".

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale in Medical Staff: Cross-sectional Study

“…In 2017, the Chinese government released the first guidelines to improve mental health in schools, workplaces, and hospitals. The WEMWBS has proven to be a convenient and valuable psychometric tool for academics, medical professionals, and other prominent stakeholders to measure the SWB of medical staff [ 43 , 44 ]. The Chinese WEMWBS has good reliability and validity with comprehensive and understandable content [ 15 , 24 , 26 , 45 ].…”

The Wellbeing Thermometer in cancer patients: a validation study

“…There is no consensus around a single de nition of wellbeing, but it is generally understood to be "how people feel and how they function on a number of levels and how they evaluate their lives as a whole" [1]. Disagreement over the de nition as well as theoretical basis of wellbeing makes it challenging to measure [2].…”

“…A systematic review published in 2016 identi ed 99 measures of wellbeing with 196 dimensions identi ed within them; however, each has their own limitations [2]. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale for example, one of the most prominent wellbeing tools in use, covers mental health but is too narrow to measure other wellbeing components including social and spiritual domains [1]. The World Health Organization Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5) measures the symptoms of depression rather than wellbeing [1].…”

“…Existing models of wellbeing focus mostly on a single part, for example psychological or social; however, wellbeing encompasses more than this [1]. A novel model of wellbeing has recently been proposed where the domains which contribute to the state of wellbeing operate as parts of a complex adaptive system.…”

“…Identi cation of these parts enables accurate measurement and thus ultimately tailored interventions designed to increase a person's wellbeing [1]. The Wellbeing Thermometer (WbT) was developed based on this framework for wellbeing which is more holistic and encompasses ve areas including health, thoughts emotions, spiritual, and social domains [1]. The WbT was developed by a multidisciplinary team through a literature review and critical analysis of existing wellbeing tools, construction of a novel wellbeing framework, and development of relevant questions to enable measurement of wellbeing [1].…”