RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To know the self-perceived quality of life by elderly patients through two evaluation instruments. METHODS: A prospective, observational, cross-sectional, and descriptive study. Successful information of 178 elder adults attending medical consultation was obtained with the purpose of evaluating the quality of life, through two validated questionnaires: Nottingham Health Profile and Coop/Wonca charts. The U Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis test were used, with a significant level of 0.05. RESULTS: The worst statistical quality of life variables in both tests were: women, widow, low studies level and no working. In relation with the coexisting chronic medical conditions for the health profile: diabetes mellitus patients showed a worse quality in all dimensions with statistical significance. As for the charts, cardiac disease patients showed the same situation. CONCLUSIONS: In both tests, similar data in relation with the factors that condition a poor quality of life were found.