Analysis of quality of life and rural development: evidence from some Ghanaian rural communities

This paper examines the indicators that rural people use to define their quality of life, how relevant the integrated quality of life theory is to the Ghanaian rural setting and the effect of rural development projects on the quality of life of beneficiaries. Using a mixed method and a sample of 354, data was collected via interviews and questionnaire. Both thematic analysis and paired sample t-test were used to analyse the data. Although the empirical results were generally consistent with the theoretical predictions, there were differences in how satisfaction of life and spirituality were defined by respondents. Existential quality of life was found to be the most important aspect of the integrative quality of life among the respondents. Additionally rural development projects were found to improve the quality of life of respondents. It was recommended that these indicators are further researched into.