Figueira et al one’s socio-cultural goals of status, wealth, and physical wellbeing.4 It is conceptualized as a generic, multidimensional parameter, describing an individual’s subjective perception of his/her physical and psychological health, as well as his/ her social functioning and environmental and general life status.3 The complex and multifaceted concept of quality of life can be regarded as the outcome of advantages and disadvantages experienced over the course of life, depending on the satisfaction of social, economic, physical, emotional, psychic, and mental conditions, as stated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Its measurements have typically included a series of life domains: physical, emotional, social, environmental, and material.5 Those who evaluate their QOL synthesize their experiences and perceptions. Those who achieve a successful synthesis experience a good QOL.6 This multidimensional concept,7 structured on a social and biological basis, and mediated by emotional, psychic, and mental conditions, is recognized as multidisciplinary,8 requiring multiple approaches from different theoretical angles. The WHOQOL-Old questionnaire is a specific, comple- mentary set of items recently developed by WHO to increase the specificity of quality of life measurement in older adults. It comprises six facets (sensory abilities; autonomy; past, present, and future activities; social participation; death and dying; intimacy), plus an overall score.9 QOL, self-evaluated via WHOQOL-Old by the elderly volunteer subjects randomly selected from inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro municipality who were treated either with TCM techniques or by non-TCM medicine, was investigated in an effort to establish the possible impact of TCM techniques on the QOL of the elderly. Preliminaries – subjects and methods Design of the research This study design is an enquiry descriptive model as ex post facto research. Universe The population of Rio de Janeiro City is composed of 6,093,472 individuals, of which 233,085 are elderly; that is, 3.8% of the total population.10 Data collection Prior to this study, two steps were taken: (i) approval was gained from the authority of the ABACO/Sohaku-in 302 submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com Dovepress Dovepress Institute in order to apply the questionnaire to the experimental group; and (ii) terms of agreement were signed by the participants of both groups. The WHOQOL- Old questionnaire was then applied. The inclusion criterion was that the participant must be a voluntary, elderly person living in Rio de Janeiro municipality. For the experimental group, there was also an inclusion criterion that the partici- pant must have been treated with TCM techniques at the Sohaku-in Institute, and there was no exclusion criterion. For the control group, the exclusion criterion was that the participant must not be of a socio-economic level, or have any mental disorientation, that could distinguish them from the experimental group. This essay complies with the ethical principles for research carried out on human beings laid down in the Helsinki Declaration.11,12 There is no external funding source for this research. The project has been approved by the Euroamerican Network of Kinesiology Research Ethics Committee. Sample The sample was composed of randomly-selected elderly (defined as aged over 60 years) volunteers living in Rio de Janeiro municipality.13 There were two groups: an experimental group treated with traditional Chinese medicine techniques at ABACO/Sohaku-in Institute as weekly out- patients for over three years; and a control group with no experience of TCM techniques. The experimental group com- prised 28 non-selected elderly of both genders (mean age = 73.0 ± 8.3). The control group comprised 36 non-selected elderly of both genders (mean age = 70.8 ± 8.0). The data were collected in October 2009 by the main author of this essay. Every individual who volunteered to answer the questionnaire in that month was accepted as part of our sample. The protocol utilized for QOL observation was the WHOQOL-Old questionnaire, developed by WHO using a transcultural approach.14 It contains six facets of 4 items each: facet 1 on sensorial functioning; facet 2 on autonomy; facet 3 on future, present and past activities; facet 4 on social participation; facet 5 on death and dying; and facet 6 on intimacy.15 From the results, a total score (TS) is calculated in absolute and relative values. The validated Brazilian version of the WHOQOL-Old was used to avoid cultural variation.16 The questionnaire was individually administered, and the elderly individuals were asked to have in mind their own values, hopes, pleasures, and concerns, based on the previous two weeks.17 Clinical Interventions in Aging 2010:5