Background: Usually quality of life self-reports are standard and consider that all the areas evaluated are equally important.
Aim: To explore the influence of specific domains on the overall quality of life self-assessment.
Material and methods: The brief version of the quality of life questionnaire developed by the World Health Organization (WHOQoL bref) was applied to 1229 participants aged 19 to 60 years (53% women). The questionnaire explores four domains: physical and psychological health, social relationships and environment. At the end of each domain a new question asking the participant to assess the importance of the domain, using a scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (very important), was added. The analysis of data considered the assessment of the importance of each domain made by participants. The weight of each domain was analyzed using regression equations.
Results: The physical health had the best evaluation followed by the social domain. The environmental domain received the lower evaluation. Among women, social domain was the best evaluated domain and among men, the physical health domain. According to participants, physical and psychological health had the higher weight. The environmental domain had the higher weight on the overall assessment of quality of life.
Conclusions: According to participants, physical and psychological health are the most important aspects that influence overall quality of life.