Percepção sobre qualidade de vida entre idosos residentes em municípios de pequeno porte do interior de Minas Gerais

• Autor(a) principal: Lima, Lara Carvalho Vilela de
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório do Centro Universitário Braz Cubas
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.cruzeirodosul.edu.br/handle/123456789/1034
• topic: Qualidade de vida; Promoção de saúde; Envelhecimento; CNPQ::CIENCIAS DA SAUDE::SAUDE COLETIVA::SAUDE PUBLICA

Population aging is a striking fact in the world, and also in Brazil, that undergone demographic transition in short length of time, compared to other countries. This requires a development of strategies aimed to improve the quality of life (QOL) of the elderly, standing out health promotion actions. To this end, it is necessary data related to the perceptions of the elderly about their QOL and the services offered, in order to subsidize health promotion actions to elderly. The objectives of this study were: to know the perceptions about QOL of elderly residents in five small cities in the State of Minas Gerais; identify the factors considered important for their QOL and to know the health promotion actions offered to the elderly in these cities. It is a qualitative research, carried out by structured interviews with opened questions based on the themes of the domains of the WHOQOL-BREF and WHOQOL-OLD questionnaires. 32 elderly of both sexes, with residence in rural and urban areas of the five cities were included. Their speeches analysis showed a range of concepts related to QOL in old age that included objective and subjective aspects, as health, peace, friendship, maintenance of family relationships and leisure. The intervieweds experiences portrayed peculiarities involving feelings and expectations at this stage of life. In relation to health, the participants presented different conceptions, striving to be alive, to be selfsufficient, autonomous, maintenance of friendships and good family relationship. Religiosity was singled out as an important strategy to promote health in old age. According to their perceptions, there were discrepancies between demand and supply of health services, public transport and social activities. It is concluded that to perform health promotion actions to elderly is necessary to know the social context which them are inserted and their different perceptions about QOL. The themes proposed by the WHOQOL-BREF and OLD questionnaires are useful to approach the QOL of the elderly. However, for the knowledge of the perception of QOL in old age the qualitative methods are more productive, since they also consider the subjective aspects of participants, providing information that are essential for formulating actions in health, allowing more freedom and facilitating the dialogue, mainly with the poor schooling elderly people residing in a rural context. Keywords: quality of life; health promotion; aging.