Validation of Qualitative Methodology Applied to a Multidimensional Instrument with an Open Question

The Brazilian population has experienced an ageing process, thus characterizing an increase in the number of elderly people. Instruments have been developed in order to measure the quality of life of elderly individuals. Hence, a questionnaire consisting of various validated instruments and an open question was applied to a group of elderly citizens in the city of Botucatu, SP, Brazil. The analysis of the open question, assessed by qualitative methods, generated eleven categories concerning the elderly people's opinions as regards quality of life and a cluster analysis of such answers was carried out, producing three groups of elderly individuals. Therefore, this work aimed at validating the categories obtained by the open question with the closed questions of the instrument by means of associations and application of chi-square tests at a level of significance of 5%. It was observed that qualitative analysis identifies phenomena regardless of category saturation. The quantitative method, on the other hand, shows the power of each category in a set, that is, as a whole. Brazil has experienced a population ageing process that is similar to that observed in developed countries. Such process is characterized by a proportional increase in the number of elderly persons in relation to the total population. Hence, Brazil has gradually ceased to be a young country, as it was referred to for a long time, and begun to witness the ageing of its population. This process has privileged females, who confirmedly live longer than males, and such alteration, related to age structure and gender, is denominated demographic transition. The fact of surviving, at times for long periods, does not mean living well since people's participation in various activities is hindered. Autonomy loss frequently occurs, leading to limitation to quality of life. Therefore, there is an interest in the early detection of who is losing such autonomy and when that loss is taking place with the purpose to organize care and necessary preventive measures. As a result, designing instruments to evaluate aspects related to quality of life in old age as well as applying such instruments in the population are of great interest. Thus, aiming at evaluating the quality of life of individuals at 60 years of age and over in the city of Botucatu, São Paulo state, an instrument consisting of and adapted from Flanagan's Quality of Life Scale