QUALITY OF LIFE AND SELF-ESTEEM IN OLDER PEOPLE FROM AN ECUADORIAN RETIREE’S ASSOCIATION

Abstract

Due to the current accelerated population aging, and the socioeconomic changes that it entails, the study of the quality of life and self-esteem perceived by the elderly was an educational response to face it. In Ecuador, scientific contributions that allow the understanding and prediction of these variables are limited, the reason that motivated this paper with the aim to verify the relationship between quality of life and self-esteem perceived by a sample of 160 retired elderly people from the coast region. It was a descriptive-correlational, cross-sectional study, data collection was through the FUMAT Quality of Life and Rosenberg Self-esteem questionnaires. Among the most relevant findings it was found that: 77% of older adults perceive a low quality of life and 76% low self-esteem. It was confirmed that quality of life is related to self-esteem in a directly proportional or positive way (r = .332; p <.05), that is to say, as quality of life decreases, self-esteem decreases too. It is concluded that factors such as retirement, widowhood, age, perception of low physical well-being and socialization contribute negatively to the perception of quality of life and self-esteem of this group.