FolioStart free
All scales

World Health Organization Quality of Life — BREF

WHOQOL-BREF
health sciencespsychologysocial sciencesFree for research use

Permission: Free for research use. Free for non-commercial academic research, with no licence fee. Cite the original publication.

A 26-item abbreviated version of the WHOQOL-100, measuring quality of life across four domains (Physical Health, Psychological, Social Relationships, Environment) plus two overall items on general QoL and general health. Response anchors vary by item (intensity, frequency, capacity, evaluation).

Items
26
Response format
5-point Likert scale (anchors vary by item)
Version
1.0
Subscales
5

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Quality of life was assessed using the 26-item WHOQOL-BREF (WHOQOL Group, 1998), which yields four domain scores (Physical Health, Psychological, Social Relationships, Environment) on a 0–100 transformed scale, plus two single-item indicators of overall QoL and general health. Items 3, 4, and 26 were reverse-scored prior to domain aggregation.

Citing this in a methods section? This scale spans more than one discipline, so the style depends on where you publish. See the APA 7 or Vancouver guides, or compare all six citation styles.

Use WHOQOL-BREF in Folio Surveyor

Add it to a study with the full items, scoring, and analysis built in.

Open Surveyor
Save WHOQOL-BREF Cite WHOQOL-BREF in a new doc

Reliability & validation

Notes
Domain alphas in the 23-country field trial were .82 (Physical Health), .81 (Psychological), .68 (Social Relationships), and .80 (Environment) (Skevington et al., 2004); Social Relationships is typically lowest because it has only three items.
Source
Skevington et al., 2004
Validation population
International field trial of adults in 23 countries (N = 11,830; Skevington et al., 2004)
Cronbach's α
0.68–0.82

Subscales

Overall Quality of Life and General HealthPhysical HealthPsychologicalSocial RelationshipsEnvironment

Response anchors

Varies by item — see items for specific anchors

Known limitations

Anchors vary across items (intensity, frequency, capacity, evaluation), so administer with the exact anchors from the WHOQOL Users Manual. Requires registration with WHO before use. Social Relationships domain has only three items, so its internal consistency is typically modest. Culturally adapted translations should cite the relevant validation study for that language version.

Original citation

WHOQOL Group (1998). Development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment. Psychological Medicine, 28(3), 551-558.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291798006667

Questions researchers ask

What does the WHOQOL-BREF measure?

A 26-item abbreviated version of the WHOQOL-100, measuring quality of life across four domains (Physical Health, Psychological, Social Relationships, Environment) plus two overall items on general QoL and general health. Response anchors vary by item (intensity, frequency, capacity, evaluation).

How many items does the WHOQOL-BREF have?

The World Health Organization Quality of Life — BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) has 26 items across 5 subscales: Overall Quality of Life and General Health, Physical Health, Psychological, Social Relationships, Environment.

Is the WHOQOL-BREF free to use?

The WHOQOL-BREF is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the WHOQOL-BREF reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.68–0.82 (Skevington et al., 2004). See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the WHOQOL-BREF, and how do I cite it?

WHOQOL Group (1998). Development of the World Health Organization WHOQOL-BREF quality of life assessment. Psychological Medicine, 28(3), 551-558. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291798006667

Or track new research mentioning WHOQOL-BREF as it publishes

Related scales

MLQMeaning in Life QuestionnairePHQ-15Patient Health Questionnaire-15PHQ-9Patient Health Questionnaire-9PSQIPittsburgh Sleep Quality IndexSWLSSatisfaction with Life ScaleBSMASBergen Social Media Addiction Scale

Library entry verified September 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.