Investigating residents` satisfaction with their quality of life : a case of Sentul East, Kuala Lumpur city

Abstract

In Malaysia, it is one of the government’s initiative to increase the residents’ quality of life as part of strategy to develop the country. Therefore, many researches are conducted to measure life satisfaction and how to improve the current life quality of the residents. However, there is a lack of study focusing on the subjective approach which relates to feeling, perceptions, evaluations, and satisfaction of the residents especially in Kuala Lumpur. In order to fill the gap in the previous researches on quality of life, this research is conducted using both objective and subjective approaches as means to measure and understand quality of life as perceived by residence of Sentul, one of the districts in Kuala Lumpur. There are four objectives considered in this research which are - to develop the conceptual framework which related to QOL; to determine the most important component that influence the QOL in urban area; to identify the level of satisfaction towards components for QOL in Sentul neighbourhood; and to propose recommendations in order to improve the QOL in Sentul area. In terms of research methodology, the method used are qualitative method which is site observation and quantitative method for questionnaire survey which included residents from various type of residential units such as Bungalow, terrace, condominium, apartment, flat, quarters, and room. On the other hand, literature review has been used as supporting literature to the findings. Scaling and measurement method like the Likert score from 1 to 5 was adopted in order to extract the finding especially for subjective approach. For data analysis, three types of analysis were applied which are descriptive analysis for categorical variables, correlation analysis used to identify the association between two continuous variables and regression analysis to identifying the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. In carrying out this research, 314 people participated in the survey which took place in certain residential areas in Sentul. The findings show that the residents’ are very satisfied with their spiritual life as majority of Malaysians who are diversified in races and religion beliefs are able to live in harmony. The test also revealed indicators that score the least in life satisfactory measure are economic stability and safety. It is recommended for the government intervention in terms of improving those facilities for which the residents have expressed non-satisfaction or lower level of satisfaction.