Self-Reported Sleep Difficulties and Self-Care Strategies Among Rural Older Adults

Abstract

This study examined the use of self-care strategies to address difficulty sleeping among community-dwelling older adults. Data were collected from a series of 18 questionnaires administered to 195 rural African American and white older adults in North Carolina. Participants reported whether they had experienced difficulty sleeping and strategies used to respond to the symptom. The most widely used strategies included ignoring the symptom, staying in bed or resting, and praying. Herb and supplement use were not reported. Ethnicity, income, and education were associated with use of specific self-care strategies for sleep. This variation suggests that older adults may draw on cultural understandings to interpret the significance of difficulty sleeping and influence their use of self-care strategies, including complementary and alternative medicine use. This information may enable health care providers to communicate with the older patients about sleep difficulty strategies to minimize sleep problems.

Intention to Use Long-Term Care Facilities: Differences beween Korean Pre-elderly and Korean Baby-boomers

“…Self-care activities for health and finance include statements about regular exercise, healthy eating and finance preparation for later life. Empirical evidence suggests that the lack of financial resources is considered the most common obstacle to promoting self-care behaviors for health among older adults (Bai et al 2009; Borg et al 2006; Sandberg et al 2013). The possible range of the subscale of self-care activities for health and finance is from 9 to 36.…”

A critical review of self-care for sleep disturbances: prevalence, profile, motivation, perceived effectiveness and medical provider communication

“…Empirical research indicating the prevalence of use of health services-including self-care for the treatment of sleep disturbances-has become increasingly available over the last 10 years (Meredith et al 2017;Sandberg et al 2014). Whilst there is a significant body of research focusing exclusively on the heightened use of conventional medical services for people with sleep disturbances (Blay et al 2008;Moloney et al 2011;Novak et al 2004;Sarsour et al 2011;Kaufmann et al 2013;Bin et al 2012), prevalence information on the use of self-care, including OTC medicine use is scattered with articles focusing mostly on just one or two aspects of use (e.g.…”