Resisting the ‘mask’ of old age?: the 
social meaning of lay health beliefs in later life

Conway, Stephen; Hockey, Jenny

doi:10.1017/s0144686x98006916

Cited by 34 publications

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“…). Fourth, the perceived negativistic attitudes of healthcare professionals, potentially denying treatment because of the patient's age, may provide reasons for older individuals to resist a perceived negative portrayal of old age in modern medicine and wider society (Conway and Hockey , Higashi et al . ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather than alter her help-seeking behaviour as she said her doctor advised, Annie reported attending the emergency department 12 times for palpitations. Similarly, Arthur became increasingly certain of his doctor's negativistic attitude towards interventions for older patients and mentioned this repeatedly; by so doing he both cemented his original beliefs and resisted the negative attitude that he perceived healthcare professionals held towards older people (Conway andHockey 1998, Higashi et al 2012). In all the situations described above, those giving negative accounts of healthcare professionals also expressed their difficulty in adapting to what they believed to be their increasingly threatened independence.…”

Section: Not Receiving Medical Treatment Believed Necessarymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do those over 80 years of age seek more or less medical help? A qualitative study of health and illness beliefs and behaviour of the oldest old

Elias

Lowton

2014

Sociology Health & Illness

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Do those over 80 years of age seek more or less medical help? A qualitative study of health and illness beliefs and behaviour of the oldest old Article (Submitted Version) http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Elias, Tania and Lowton, Karen (2014) Do those over 80 years of age seek more or less medical help? A qualitative study of health and illness beliefs and behaviour of the oldest old. Sociology of Health and Illness, 36 (7). pp. [970][971][972][973][974][975][976][977][978][979][980][981][982][983][984][985] This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/54055/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse:Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University.Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. AbstractIncreasing longevity and prevalence of long-term conditions have contributed to older adults being the greatest health service users in the United Kingdom. Both overuse of health services and delayed medical consultation have potentially significant consequences for individuals and health service providers. However, little is known about how the 'oldest old' perceive health and illness or how these beliefs influence their help-seeking behaviours. We conducted in-depth interviews and collected symptom diaries from working-class older people aged 80-93 in London. We found that a morally-grounded, hierarchical approach to health problems and help-seeking exists, similar to Jocelyn Cornwell's Hard-Earned Lives (1984) study findings, conducted with working-class 50-60 year-olds in London thirty years earlier. However, the different ages of the sample participants allows us to understand how adults modify their beliefs and behaviours in advanced older age. By being increasingly attributed to older age, some health problems are 'demedicalised' and self-managed; others are 'upgraded' and perceived as more serious, leading to earlier and increased medical consultation. A sense of empowerment appears fundamental to altering these beliefs and behaviours. Our findings further understanding of oldest old people's use of health services, and will aid...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Not Receiving Medical Treatment Believed Necessarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Do those over 80 years of age seek more or less medical help? A qualitative study of health and illness beliefs and behaviour of the oldest old

Elias

Lowton

2014

Sociology Health & Illness

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“…The ideal of maintaining an active life while aging, despite illnesses or physical limitations, was prized by all the study participants, and to this end, they actively engaged in both biomedical and CAM healing strategies. The women took responsibility for and felt empowered by their management of health care treatments and providers—and explained that this management encouraged them to be more active and participatory in their health 21,22,27. Earlier studies in the gerontological literature characterize older patients as particularly unwilling to act independently of medical authority and exercise independent judgment 28,29.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He found that older patients were highly satisfied with and felt empowered by CAM treatments. Similarly, in a study of health beliefs in 15 older people, Conway and Hockey22 found that participants who reported using homeopathy contrasted the empowering experience of CAM with the paternalistic and patronizing experiences of biomedicine. In interviews with 77 older adults, Kelner and Wellman23 showed that patients choose specific kinds of practitioners for particular problems, and some engage with a mixture of practitioners to treat a specific complaint.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Patients' Interactions With Physicians and Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners: Older Women With Breast Cancer and Self-Managed Health Care

et al. 2009

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63aged population over the next decades (with its high prevalence of comorbidities), will likely result in a rise in the number of patients concomitantly visiting physicians and CAM practitioners. [12][13][14] The focus on the individual, the notion of personal responsibility for health care, new forms of spirituality, relatively high levels of education, and increasing cultural and ethnic diversity provide for a growing acceptance of medical pluralism. 15 Given the twin facts of the high cost of providing health care to older patients and the difficulty of offering comprehensive health care that incorporates physical, social, and emotional well-being, 16,17 it has been suggested that CAM can serve an important role as an adjunct to biomedicine in enhancing quality of life in the aging population. 7,18 Despite acknowledgment of demographic trends, however, there are very few studies dealing with the use of CAM by older patients or with the impact of changing configurations of therapeutic relationships on older patients' experience of health care. The little research that has been conducted on CAM use among older people has rarely addressed their experience of CAM use or the effect of CAM on their understandings of and reactions to their relationships with physicians and CAM practitioners. Both the lack of critical gerontological perspectives within CAM research and the paucity of qualitative studies of older people and CAM use are particularly striking. 7,19 Qualitative research methodologies can provide unique understandings of people's subjective experiences of growing older as IntroductionIt is estimated that approximately 40% of Americans use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) each year [1][2][3][4] and that the number of consultations with CAM practitioners is higher than those with physicians. 5 Despite much research on CAM use generally, however, there is very little information on the use of CAM among older adults. 6 Depending on the breadth of the definition and the clinical characteristics of the populations studied, estimates of CAM use among older people range from 11% to 80%. 7 Although researchers do not agree on the precise rates of use, it is clear that a significant proportion of older people worldwide are actively engaged in the use of CAM. In the medically pluralistic society of the contemporary United States, this means that older patients are more likely than ever to be under the care of both physicians and CAM practitioners. 8,9 Growing interest in the use of CAM for chronic conditions, 10,11 coupled with the predicted expansion of the Older patients are more likely than ever to be under the care of both physicians and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners, yet there is little research on older patients' experience of these different relationships. This article addresses older breast cancer patients' seeking of concurrent care and examines patients' understandings of interactions with physicians and CAM practitioners. This is a qualitative study of a random, p...

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“…It is clear that on the whole trial patients were more disabled than their day centre counterparts, but there was also a degree of overlap between the two populations suggesting an element of arbitrariness in referrals for treatment. Conway & Hockey (1998) highlight that health problems in older people are often attributed to age itself. An implication of this is that there may be a reluctance to see ailments associated with later life as treatable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collaboration, facilities and communities in day care services for older people

Burch

Borland

2001

Health &Amp; Social Care in the Community

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Collaborative working in care for older people is often seen as a desirable goal. However, there can be problems with this approach. This paper reports on a single blind randomized controlled trial which was carried out to compare outcomes of rehabilitation in two settings: a day hospital and social services day centres augmented by visiting therapists. The subjects were 105 older patients. Principal outcome measures were the Barthel Index, Philadelphia Geriatric Centre Morale Scale and the Caregiver Strain Index. Two aspects of the trial are examined here. Firstly, we investigated whether trial patients were more disabled than regular day centre attendees. Levels of health and well being amongst trial patients were compared with those of a random sample of 20 regular attendees from both of the participating day centres and an additional voluntary sector day centre. Secondly, key staff from the different settings were interviewed to assess how well the day centre model had worked in practice. Trial patients were significantly more disabled than regular day centre attendees according to the Barthel Index (P < 0.001), but this difference was no longer significant after three months of treatment. The day centre model had several problems, principally discharge policy, acceptability, facilities and attitudes of staff and regular attendees. Positive aspects of the day centre model, as well as successful rehabilitation, included shared skills, knowledge and resources. This paper suggests that collaborative working in day centres requires multipurpose facilities. If health staff maintain a permanent presence, benefits can include improved joint working, easier access to health care and the use of rehabilitative therapy as a preventative strategy. Day care settings can be analyzed as representing different types of communities. Allowing older users a greater degree of choice in facilities may increase the acceptability of care.

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Resisting the ‘mask’ of old age?: the social meaning of lay health beliefs in later life

Cited by 34 publications

References 0 publications

Do those over 80 years of age seek more or less medical help? A qualitative study of health and illness beliefs and behaviour of the oldest old

Do those over 80 years of age seek more or less medical help? A qualitative study of health and illness beliefs and behaviour of the oldest old

Patients' Interactions With Physicians and Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners: Older Women With Breast Cancer and Self-Managed Health Care

Collaboration, facilities and communities in day care services for older people

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