DECOLONIZING QUALITY OF LIFE: AN ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIOMEDICAL INDICATORS AND TRADITIONAL COSMOLOGIES

Abstract

This article problematizes the biomedical hegemony underlying the measurement of quality of life, arguing that consolidated instruments, such as the WHOQOL-BREF, remain grounded in Western epistemologies that overlook traditional cosmologies, including Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay). This gap produces analytical distortions in the interpretation of health indicators, particularly among Indigenous populations and in contexts of socio-environmental vulnerability. The objective of the study is to analyze the use of stress biomarkers (cortisol, allostatic load, inflammatory markers) and, simultaneously, empirical investigations on Indigenous well-being, proposing an integrative framework that articulates biological indicators with spiritual and community-based dimensions of quality of life. This study consists of an integrative review conducted through a systematized search in international databases, resulting in the final selection of 25 peer-reviewed original articles. The findings indicate convergence between cultural continuity, territoriality, and the modulation of physiological stress markers, highlighting the limitations of exclusively biomedical models. It is concluded that the decolonization of quality of life requires a relational, biologically informed, and epistemologically plural analytical matrix that challenges the currently predominant standard.