More than half of Brazilians prefer to live better than for longer, study indicates

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If “living longer” on the one hand and “having a better quality of life” on the other were weighed, Bruce Martins, 29, a clinical psychologist and doctoral student, would choose “to live longer, to have more chances of enjoying existence and do whatever you want.”

Maria (not her real name, on request), a retired university professor and mother of three, would choose what, in her 91 years of age, she says is paramount: “quality”. And she’s not the only one with this analysis.

A study carried out with 1,682 people from all over Brazil shows that 57% of the population prioritize quality of life, while 43% prefer to have more time in this story. The preference for quality is greater for women, people with higher education, the loneliest and as they age. The data are from the Locomotiva Institute.

“The main conclusions are that the valuation of quality versus time of existence varies according to the time of life and that this variation correlates with what social psychiatry studies show: depression and anxiety peak during middle age, when in which people are most pressing for time, decreasing in old age, a phase in which people seek – and are – happier”, observes Álvaro Machado Dias, a professor at Unifesp (Federal University of São Paulo), a partner at the Instituto Locomotive and columnist Sheet.

Postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience from the Instituto do Cérebro at UFRN (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte) Geissy Araújo, who did not participate in the study, sees it as an important insight. “As we get older, we understand that it’s not about the amount of things or the amount of time we have, but about how we live this time that is available now”.

For Araújo, there is a worldwide movement in search of living longer, and this is due to a great difficulty in accepting the finitude of the human being and the loss of vitality.

Bruce, for example, says he is “very afraid of dying”. “I start from the premise that I only have this life to do what I have to do. I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in an afterlife. So more time means being able to enjoy it more.”

In the case of women, the preference for quality of life may reflect “the feeling of a double shift”, the overload that many of them have when they have to reconcile their professional lives with household chores and children, says Álvaro. Geissy Araújo analyzes that it is “as an attempt to recognize that it is necessary to rest and respect one’s own limits”.

The manifestation of this preference by more than half of the population suggests that the increase in adult life expectancy has not been accompanied by a proportional increase in quality of life. “So, the extra years would not necessarily make us happier”, says Álvaro.

The nonagenarian Maria says that quality of life used to be, for her, “family, work, health and pleasurable human relationships”.

Today, she associates the concept with “having health and a functioning head”. The study shows that having quality of life is directly linked to being healthy.

“Each one has a way of life, feels fulfilled in a way”, he says. “I’m 91 years old. I haven’t been happy all the time. I had problems like everyone else, but I feel fulfilled professionally and my children have fulfilled me a lot. Happiness consists of accomplishments too.”

One of the concepts that emerge from the work points out that “what matters is to have a life well lived”. “And that doesn’t mean a life of pleasure, merely. It means having a purpose, building or having a legacy. A life, above all, of connecting with people”, observes Álvaro.

Maria saw World War II, communism end in Russia and the evolution of communications, for example. “Frustration is dying without knowing where this world is going, which is changing faster every day,” she says.

The retired teacher found it “a little difficult”, but managed to reconcile family life with studies and career. As her children grew up, she did a specialization course, became a master and a doctor. She was a teacher and researcher until the age of 77 and sees happiness as the key to existence.

Questions such as “what really makes sense to have a more meaningful existence” arise throughout life, reinforces Geissy Araújo. It is a context in which “the society of tiredness” is discussed, she adds, evoking the South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul-Han.

“It’s as if we always have to be our best version. And for that it seems that we have to do, do, do and it seems that there is not enough time”, says the researcher.

“An interesting reflection is how we get out of this, the society of performance, productivity, which ends up generating a lot of fatigue and triggering diseases such as burnout, depression and anxiety. The challenge is to bring presence, be aware of values, enjoy the time that the we have quality so that we can actually live and not just survive in this world”.

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