DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF THE LEVEL OF SATISFACTION AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE OPEN UNIVERSITY FOR THE ELDERLY

Abstract

Quality of life in old age has been a topic of current relevance and growing interest. The Open University for the Elderly (UAPI) aims to provide continuing, quality education, encouraging learning, socialization, active participation in the community, and healthy and active aging. The objective of this study was to assess the level of satisfaction and quality of life of older adults participating in courses offered by UAPI in Divinópolis, Minas Gerais. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted using a self-administered questionnaire developed on the Google Forms platform. The questionnaire included sociodemographic questions and indicators of participant satisfaction with UAPI. The validated WHOQOL-BREF instrument was used to assess quality of life. The survey included 100 elderly participants, 67.7% of whom were female, with an average age of 69 years. Among the respondents, 64.5% attended the computer course. Most participants (94.6%) reported that the courses contributed to improving their quality of life, making them more active and engaged (93.5%). Satisfaction with different aspects of the UAPI was high, especially with regard to course content (69.9%), teaching methodology (75.3%), infrastructure (77.4%), and instructor performance (79.6%). The WHOQOL-BREF results indicated lower scores in the physical domain (54.45%) and the environment domain (57.79%) and higher scores in the psychological domain (65.50%), followed by the social relations domain (65.05%). After multivariate analysis, it was found that the variables related to education (p=0.000) and having children (p=0.001) had particularly strong effects on the domains analyzed by the WHOQOL-BREF. It is concluded that UAPI courses meet the expectations of older adults, contributing significantly to their quality of life and psychosocial well-being.