You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Qualitative
Older people perceived health as going and doing something meaningful

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebn.5.3.96

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Bryant LL, Corbett KK, Kutner JS.In their own words: a model of healthy aging.Soc Sci Med2001 Oct;53:927–41OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science

    QUESTION: What constitutes and contributes to the health of older people?

    Design

    Grounded theory type analysis.

    Setting

    Healthcare facilities of a group practice health maintenance organisation in the US.

    Participants

    22 older individuals who were randomly selected from those whose reported perceived health differed from that predicted by a regression model constructed from data from a randomised trial of a primary care intervention.

    Methods

    Semistructured interviews lasted approximately 45 minutes and took place in participants' homes or in healthcare facilities. Questions targeted perceptions of health; wellbeing; valued abilities, activities, and relationships; social support; control; sense of coherence; and personal outlook. Analysis of the interviews employed grounded theory type immersion into the material. This process led to the identification of a central phenomenon and the relation of other factors with it.

    Main findings

    For these older individuals, health meant going and doing something meaningful. Going meant more than mobility and doing meant …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Sources of funding: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Chronic Care Initiative to the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Colorado and Graduate Research Opportunities Program of the University of Colorado at Denver.

    • For correspondence: Dr L Bryant, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver CO, USA. lucinda.bryant{at}uchsc.edu