The aim of this study was to compare the quality of life of 70 independent elderly residents in ones institutions (G1) and 210 not institutionalized (G2) in the metropolitan region of Vitória- ES. The Whoqol-bref instrument, a script of physical examination and demographic questionnaire was used. Tests "t" of Student, Mann-Whitney, Kruskall Wallis and Wilcoxon had been used. In relation to the systemic health, the association between the factor institutionalization and the systolic arterial pressure was verified with higher values in the G1 (p= 0,003). The G1 has shown the worse quality of life comparing to the G2, which presented better punctuations in all the domains of the instrument. An association between institutionalization and all the domains of the quality of life was observed: physical domain (p=0,002), psychological one (p=0,000), social relations (p=0,033) and environment (p=0,002). The elderly ones institutionalized presented a worse quality of life in comparison to the not institutionalized, affirming that the institutionalization is determinant concerning to the loss of the quality of life.
Aged; Institutionalization; Quality of life; Aging; Health Promotion
