Introduction:

Quality of life is a broad concept that includes several dimensions. Psychological components play a fundamental role in general perception, mainly in older adults.

Objective:

To describe the perception of psychological components of quality of life in older adults in the Riobamba canton.

Methods:

A basic research was carried out, with a non-experimental, field, cross-sectional and descriptive design that included a population of 3794 elderly residents in the Riobamba canton, Chimborazo province, Ecuador. The sample was made up of 696 people divided into two groups, a sample residing in urban and rural areas. The questionnaire used by the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion of Ecuador was used to determine the perception of quality of life.

Results:

average age of 67.87 years, predominance of the female sex (64.80%) and primary educational level (33.76%); only 13.08% reported a history of psychological disorders with a predominance of anxiety disorder (56.04%), followed by depressive symptoms (36.27%).

Conclusions:

Satisfactory results of perception of psychological components of quality of life were obtained. Frequent and always or almost always satisfaction was obtained in most of the items in both rural and urban populations.