Evaluating influential factors in WHOQOL-BREF instrument using the DEMATEL method

This paper proposed the DEMATEL method to evaluate the influential factors in WHOQOL-BREF instrument. The proposed method helped to identify and visualize the importance of factors, the causal relationship among the factors, and the mutual influence between them. A numerical example was presented to illustrate the applicability of DEMATEL. The results demonstrated that the WHOQOL-BREF factors can be divided into a causal group (physical and environment) and an effect group (psychological and social). The psychological domain was the most important factor and the most important core problem to be solved. The most influential driver factor was the environment, followed by the physical domain. The results can be used to develop strategies to improve quality of life in each health domain, in a priorities order.