Commentary.

The article comments on the effect of age on quality of life in implantable cardioverter defibrillator recipients. Given the ubiquity of quality of life measures in health research it may seem nonsensical to claim that it was invented in 1966, but analysis of one of the author gives this as the date on which the very first paper to address the quality of life was published in the medical literature. Researchers describe the SF-36 as measuring important health concepts such as physical and mental health and health transition.