Criterion Imitation of Life

In a passionate and witty behind-the-scenes expose, the author of All About "All About Eve" takes on the classic 1959 Douglas Sirk film starring Lana Turner.

The impact of illness on individual lives and society at large was once considered too vast to gauge. More recently, quantitative measures of quality of life, life expectancy, and the financial costs of illness and treatment are showing not only how this impact can be calculated but also how the results can be used to further research and improve public health. The Handbook of Disease Burdens and Quality of Life Measures is the first comprehensive reference to these instruments and their findings on an international scale.

The aim of this encyclopedia is to provide a comprehensive reference work on scientific and other scholarly research on the quality of life, including health-related quality of life research or also called patient-reported outcomes research. Since the 1960s two overlapping but fairly distinct research communities and traditions have developed concerning ideas about the quality of life, individually and collectively, one with a fairly narrow focus on health-related issues and one with a quite broad focus. In many ways, the central issues of these fields have roots extending to the observations and speculations of ancient philosophers, creating a continuous exploration by diverse explorers in diverse historic and cultural circumstances over several centuries of the qualities of human existence. What we have not had so far is a single, multidimensional reference work connecting the most salient and important contributions to the relevant fields.

The impact of illness on individual lives and society at large was once considered too vast to gauge. More recently, quantitative measures of quality of life, life expectancy, and the financial costs of illness and treatment are showing not only how this impact can be calculated but also how the results can be used to further research and improve public health. The Handbook of Disease Burdens and Quality of Life Measures is the first comprehensive reference to these instruments and their findings on an international scale.