Hannah's PhD entitled An investigation into the validity of existing measures of health, quality of life and wellbeing in older adults used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the validity of the EQ-5D-5L, SF-12, the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT), the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) and the ONS Personal Wellbeing Questions (ONS-4) in assessing the quality of life of older adults.

The study found that social contact and the ability to perform usual activities both inside and outside the home, were central to the quality of life of older adults. A generational stoic attitude led many participants to question the relevance of negatively phrased mental health items. In general, measures which focused more on physical functioning were preferred to subjective wellbeing questions, particularly among the frailest individuals, for whom maintaining basic functionings was the priority.