In health care, especially in the developed countries, quality of life evaluations have become usual in research; action, service, and policy planning; resource allocation; program evaluation, with an exponential growth of publications6. Since the 1970s, there has been an explosion of interest about this subject. Research about quality of life among the elderly has gained importance since 1977, when the descriptor "quality of life" was first used in PubMed. The elderly, comprising less than one-fifth of the world population, are responsible for more than 40% of the research concerning quality of life (Table 1). In Brazil, the recognition of importance of quality of life research is more recent, and is gaining popularity.7