A multi-criteria weighting approach for Quality of Life evaluation.

Evaluation and analysis in health care is a complex task that may involve handling uncertainties and trade-offs between multiple, often conflicting criteria. In the present paper, a multi-criteria weighting approach is proposed for evaluation and analysis of Quality of Life (QoL) criteria. Based on the evaluations of a group of experts and using a Rough Analytical Hierarchy Process (RAHP) weighting method, the QoL criteria weights are determined. The expert evaluation's uncertainty is modeled with the rough sets theory. The proposed approach is validated by a case study that performs an analysis of WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire criteria. In the case study, weights are calculated for physical health, psychological, social relations and environment criteria. A comparison between the RAHP weights obtained and the AHP weights is achieved. The result of the analysis shows that the order of importance of criteria from the most important to the least important is the following: physical health, psychological, social relations and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]