The Meaning and Practice of Self- Care by Older Adults

Abstract

Drawing on material from qualitative interviews, this article examines self-care as a response to physical symptoms commonly experienced by older people. The analysis indicates that older persons approach, interpret, and treat their symptoms within both biomedical and psychosocial frameworks. Self-care responses appear to be learned early in life, reinforced throughout the life cycle, and formed in consultation with professional as well as lay persons. Symptom responses reflect and reinforce the meaning of social relations in individuals' lives, providing a symbolic medium for the assessment of present and past relationships, cross-generational connections, and past troubles and issues of personal identity. Findings suggest that categorizing sources of care into professional, informal, or self overly simplifies the symptom experience of older adults. Self-care goes beyond the acknowledgment of discomfort and subsequent treatment of symptoms; it involves the representation and interpretation of the self.

Self-Care Among Chronically Ill African Americans: Culture, Health Disparities, and Health Insurance Status

“…Such an approach has the effect of obscuring the complexity of culture and its relevance for self-care, and how biomedical precepts about self-care layer onto preexisting cultural approaches. Dill and colleagues 20 observe that definitions of self-care…”

“…Such an approach is best suited to a qualitative, interpretive approach in which personal meanings, unique linkages among forms of care, and the relationship between self-care behavior and the individual's social context can be identified. 20 …”

Language Barriers Surrounding Medication Use among Older Latinos

“…Family networks are linked to health behavior in later life, particularly so among older members of minority groups (Bagley, Angel, Dilworth-Anderson, Liu, & Schinke, 1995;Flack et al, 1995;Johnson et al, 1995). Family members are frequent participants in medical encounters (Prohaska, 1998) and may be active in medical decisionmaking (Dill, Brown, Ciambrone, & Rakowski, 1995). Among non-English speaking elders, bilingual family members and friends are recognized as intermediaries between health care providers and their patients.…”

The choices, choosing model of quality of life: Clinical evaluation and intervention

“…Correspondingly, elders may respond in a personally characteristic way to the reinforcing rewards that may follow the act of choosing, typically varying in the response to patterns of rewards that are distinguished by their strength, duration of delay before being received, and probability that the rewards will actually be delivered (Mobini, Chiang, Bradshaw, & Szabadi, 1999). Many elders will view and value rewards in the light of their previous experience of how it worked for them in the past (Dill, Brown, Ciambrone, & Rakowski, 1995); a history of such experiences can enable the interprofessional team to influence the client's perspective on current choices.…”