Introduction: quality of life (QoL) has become a clinical, ethical, and political challenge in long-term care. The literature shows that it is underestimated by professionals, and it is recommended that even in the presence of cognitive impairment, it must be taken into account, promoted, and valued. Aim: to describe QoL as perceived by patients and by their main caregiver and to examine whether there are differences between these two perceptions. Methods: a descriptive study and comparisons between patients’ QoL scores and the scores given by their main caregiver. A paired sample of twenty-six long-term care patients and caregivers answered the QoL_AD questionnaire. Results: patients gave higher scores than their caregivers. This was especially true in the aspects of social health and interpersonal relationships in marriage, in families, or regarding the quality of their environment. Discussion and conclusion: our results conform with the literature and show that carers scored patients’ QoL lower than patients did for themselves. This can have an impact on care priorities and the results of this study encourage an improvement in patient-centered care.