HEALTH AS PERCEIVED BY THE AGED (NURSING, NON-CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE, PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH).
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 191
Subjects: Education, Health.; Gerontology.
Description: This qualitative study was conducted to gain an insight into the phenomenon of health as perceived by people ranging in age from 65-102, living independently in a city on the West Coast of the United States. Many health studies have emerged from the basic sciences and followed the medical model emphasizing functional abilities of large populations including the elderly. Limited knowledge is available about the gains in later life. This sample was composed of 60 Caucasian, American-born, self-defined healthy individuals, 47 women and 13 men in the age groups of 65-74, 75-84, and over 85, representing the middle/upper (60%) and lower-income groups (40%). Eight-nine percent of the women lived alone, including 36% of those over 85. Only 17% of the informants were married, although 83% indicated that they had been married and were separated, divorced, and/or widowed. They were well-educated, 27% having completed high school only and 57% holding academic degrees.

The definition of health emerging from the data was "health is a state of mind," supported by three sub-categories, "outlook on life," "social associations," and "physical health." Health was described in terms of expanding integration of physical and mental properties but with an emphasis on psychological attributes. This perception was complemented by three types of health orientation: health as a state of well-being, health as a state of healthy functioning; and health as a state of absence of disease. The majority of the informants (82%) defined health predominantly in terms of mental properties and not by reference to illness and disease, disability and dysfunction, a perspective supported by impaired informants who referred to themselves as healthy. Their mental attitude seemed to control a gradually failing body.

People in the age group of 65-74 defined health primarily in terms of physical and mental activities whereas informants over 85 emphasized health in terms of mental abilities and the maintenance of physical functioning. People in the 75-84 age group could be classified in either of the other two categories. Health behaviors that were prioritized by all people were nutrition, physical exercise, and activity (i.e. social and mental engagement).
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-05, Section: A, page: 1199.

Thesis (D.N.S.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1985.

School code: 0034.