Aging and quality of life of elderly people in rural areas.

Objective: To evaluate the quality of life and health of elderly in rural areas of Minas Gerais State's center-west.

Method: Cross-sectional study, in four municipalities of Minas Gerais State, by interviewing elderly people. Associations between socio-demographic and quality of life variables were tested, separated into "satisfactory"/"unsatisfactory" with values from the median of positive answers. It was used the chi-square test, Fisher's test and regression.

Results: 182 elderly answered the questions and showed a relation with the "satisfactory" quality of life - bivariate (p < 0.05): age by 69 years (61.6%), married (61.7%), living by 54 years in rural areas (68%), with no financial support (59.5%), living with someone else (61%), non-smoker (60%), presenting good health (76.7%), satisfied with life (69.6%); regression: not having financial support, living with someone else and not smoking.

Conclusion: Elderly people in rural areas present good quality of life/health in the cognitive aspect, access to services, goods, habits, but awareness must be constant due to their weakness.