Profile of quality of life and happiness of residents of a rural settlement in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Introduction: quality of life (QOL) is the individual's perception of their position in life, in the cultural context and in the value system. Objective: to evaluate the QOL and the happiness level of the community of the Nova Amazônia Settlement Project (PANA). Methodology: observational, transversal, prospective, descriptive, qualitative and quantitative study, involving 184 residents of PANA. Data collection was carried out between November 2019 and September 2020, using the WHOQOL-100 questionnaire and a happiness scale developed by Lyubomirsky and Lepper. Results: there was an association between being a man and having a better score in the Physical domain (p = 0.014), being a woman and a better score in the Spirituality / Beliefs domain (p = 0.030), having a higher income and a better score in the Environment domain (p = 0.0003), having a higher level of education and a better global assessment of QOL (p = 0.008) and better scores in the domains Independence (p = 0.023) and Environment (p = 0.015), being 18 to 39 years old and having a better score in Independence domain (p = 0.007) and between living in the settlement for less time and having more independence (p = 0.023). No association was found between sociodemographic data and the level of happiness. Conclusion: Despite all the economic and social difficulties experienced by the studied population, both the QOL and happiness scores are at a median level. The Physical and Environmental domains were the most fragile, with the lowest scores and the main problems pointed out by the participants were the occurrence of musculoskeletal pain, the home environment, absence of leisure / recreation and the inefficiency of public transport

Keywords: Quality of life;  Happiness; Rural population.