Quality of life in the aging process: comparative analysis

Abstract

Quality of life in the elderly can be understood as the maintenance of health in all aspects of human life: physical, social, psychic and spiritual. In this sense, aging with quality of life has become a challenge for humanity. Objective: To compare the quality of life of Brazilian and Portuguese elderly accompanied by Primary Health Care. Methodological description: This is a descriptive, correlational study applied to 235 elderly people accompanied by family health units in the municipalities of Benevides, Pará, Brazil and Coimbra, Portugal. The inclusion criteria for both countries were: to be resident and / or cared for in the attached areas of the health units, to be 65 years of age or older. Exclusion criteria were defined as: not residing in the assigned area and / or not being attended by the health units, being less than 65 years old. For data collection, the World Health Organization Quality of Life-bref instrument (WHOQOL- bref), validated in both countries, was used in two moments: in Brazil, from July 2015 to February 2016; and in Portugal from April to May 2017. The sociodemographic variables were treated descriptively and analyzed using the statistical software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Results: Predominated the female gender, married, incomplete schooling and retirees. The quality of life among the Portuguese elderly is better in the Environment domain than the Brazilian elderly, the best score is the Psychological domain. Conclusion: Knowing the quality of life of elderly people among different countries allowed the implementation of actions that strengthen public policies aimed at promoting active and healthy aging.