Quality of life and perceived usability by Criciuma park goers: multilevel analysis/Qualidade de vida e usabilidade percebida dos frequentadores dos parques de Criciuma: analise multinivel/Calidad de vida y usabilidad percibida de los visitantes de los parques de Criciuma: analisis multinivel

This study aimed to measure and correlate the perceived quality of life and usability of park goers (quality of equipment, number of equipment, accessibility and safety) in Criciuma/SC. This is a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study. The World Health Organization Quality of Life, short version, was administered to 312 volunteer visitors in the three city municipal parks. Multilevel regression models were used to analyze the data. Participants showed differences in relation to sex (perceived quality of life), age group (psychological domain), income (physical, psychological and environmental domain) and education (environmental domain). There was a low to moderate correlation between the quality of the equipment and the environment domain, between accessibility and the physical domain, and between safety and the psychological domains and social relationships. Parks are beneficial spaces for a more egalitarian quality of life among their visitors, although external factors influence this perception. The results of the correlations indicate that isolated usability factors may not favor higher values of the perception of quality of life, as well as indicating the subjectivity of this perception based on a multidimensional set of factors. It is recommended that future studies need to investigate the longitudinal impacts of the parks on peoples' quality of life. Keywords: Health, public open Spaces, built environment, communities. O presente estudo teve por objetivo mensurar e correlacionar a percepcao de qualidade de vida e usabilidade dos frequentadores dos parques (qualidade dos equipamentos, numero de equipamentos, acessibilidade e seguranca) de Criciuma/SC. Trata-se de um estudo quantitativo, descritivo e transversal. O World Health Organization Quality of Life, versao reduzida, foi administrado a 312 visitantes voluntarios de tres parques da cidade. Utilizou-se de modelos de regressoes multiniveis para analisar os dados. Os frequentadores apresentaram diferencas em relacao ao sexo (percepcao da qualidade de vida), faixa etaria (dominio psicologico), renda (dominio fisico, psicologico e meio ambiente) e escolaridade (dominio meio ambiente). Verificou-se correlacao baixa a moderada entre a qualidade dos equipamentos e o dominio meio ambiente, entre acessibilidade e o dominio fisico e entre seguranca com os dominios psicologicos e relacoes sociais. Os parques apresentam-se como espacos beneficos para uma qualidade de vida mais igualitaria dentr