La finalité de l'éducation thérapeutique : qualité ou quantité de la vie ?

In the field of chronic disease, education of patients aims to endow them with the tools to live with their disease and to manage the treatments. It is not clear whether the goal of the so-called therapeutic education is to allow for a longer life or a better life. In a medical point of view the concept of quality of life depends mostly on how the different functions work, which is investigated through standardized interviews whose results can be quantified. Besides this functional concept, the quality of life can be regarded as an “affective tonality”, which imprints the whole life, but cannot be quantified. If education of patient first aims at a longer life, it allows also for a better life and these two goals are often intricate. When these goals seem to be opposed, it could be a help to educate the patient in order for him to participate in the decision. The fact that education of the patient should aim at a longer life cannot easily be criticised. These educative actions can be evaluated and the choice of a longer life may also be seen as a consequence of the fear of death.