Elders' perception of quality of life

Objectives: To explore the perception of quality of life of elders from a health care district in Porto Alegre, RS, and to identify the most common dimensions of voice by the elders. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study using the following open question: What quality of life means to you? Participants consisted of 260 elders who were residents of Porto Alegre, RS. N-Vivo 2.0 was used to conduct content analysis by observing the dimensions of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the WHOQOL-100 and the module WHOQOL-OLD. Results: The majority of participants reported that quality of life was synonym of good health. The most common dimensions of quality of life were positive feelings, personal relationships, and access to food. Conclusion: The study's findings support that quality of life is a multidimensional construct that can be used to evaluated objectives and subjective parameters.