The correlation between health status and quality of life in southern Brazil.
OBJECTIVE
The interconnections between quality of life and health status as assessed via questionnaires have not been thoroughly investigated. The objective of this study was to investigate a possible correlation between the constructs of general health status and quality of life as assessed by the Portuguese versions of two questionnaires recently adapted and tested in Brazil.


METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study in which two self-administered questionnaires were used. This investigation was conducted at healthcare services associated with the Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Brazil.


METHODS
This study presents data from a sample of 120 volunteers who completed the Portuguese versions of the Personal Health Scale and the Multicultural Quality of Life Index questionnaires. Bivariate linear regression analysis and Pearson correlation coefficients were generated from the scores of the two questionnaires.


RESULTS
A significant correlation between the concepts of quality of life and health status as evaluated by the Portuguese versions of both questionnaires was observed. Almost all of the health-related questions displayed strong correlations with the overall concept of quality of life. The magnitude of this correlation accounted for almost half of the observed variance.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that, within this sample, health-related issues were key factors for the overall experience of wellbeing and quality of life. The similarities observed across the different groups indicate that the interrelation between health status and quality of life was homogenous, regardless of presence and/or type of ailments.
Zubaran
Carlos
C
Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Persch
Karina
K
Tarso
Desire
D
Ioppi
Ana
A
Mezzich
Juan
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001938:Brazil; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014175:Translating; D055815:Young Adult