The meaning of actualization of self-care resources among a group of older home-dwelling people—A hermeneutic study

Abstract

Self-care is an activity of mature persons who have developed their abilities to take care of themselves. Individuals can choose to actualize their self-care abilities into self-care activities to maintain, restore, or improve health and well-being. It is of importance to understand the meaning of the actualization of self-care resources among older people. The aim of this study was to investigate the meaning of the actualization of self-care resources, i.e., actions taken to improve, maintain, or restore health and well-being, among a group of older home-dwelling individuals with a high sense of coherence. The design of this study was to reanalyse narratives revealing self-care activities from 11 (five females and six males) Norwegian older home-dwelling people (65 years or older) identified as having a high sense of coherence. In order to reveal the meaning and get an understanding of why these self-care resources were realized or actualized, a Gadamerian-based research method was chosen. The analysis revealed four themes that showed the meaning of actualization of self-care resources in the study group: “Desire to carry on”, “Be of use to others”, “Self-realization”, and “Confidence to manage in the future”. The findings showed what older people found meaningful to strive for, and this information can be used as a guide for health professionals when supporting older people in their self-care. Older people with self-care resources can also be an important resource for others in need of social contact and practical help. These resources have to be asked for in voluntary work among older people in need of help and, thereby, can be a valuable supplement to the community health care system.

Sense of coherence and health of community-dwelling older adults in Spain

“…SOC was also lower among participants burdened by problems with mobility, personal care, daily activities and pain/discomfort, as opposed to those with no problems in these areas. These findings agree with and add to the literature on depression and functional independence in relation to SOC (Virués-Ortega et al, 2007;Mellqvist et al, 2011;Soderhamn et al, 2013).…”

A critical analysis of articles using a Gadamerian based research method

“…Thirty‐seven citations claim to be hermeneutic and generally follow the method as it was intended (Söderhamn, Dale, & Söderhamn, ; Thorkildsen, Eriksson, & Råholm, ). Among the hermeneutic studies, however, Tranvåg, Petersen, and Nåden () use a combination of our method with that of Zimmer ().…”

Perspectives of health and self‐care among older persons—To be implemented in an interactive information and communication technology‐platform

“…This may be due to the limitations of using prior data and the inclusion older persons living in nursing homes. Older persons living in nursing homes may have a greater need for care and rely to a greater extent on the healthcare professionals’ knowledge and competence, which can lead to a decreased interest in self‐care actions (Söderhamn et al., ). This suggests that it might be a challenge to implement self‐care actions among older persons.…”

“…The search terms “older people” OR “older persons” OR “older adults” were chosen according to the WHO definition of older people, that is, people 65 years of age or older (World Health Organization, ). “Self‐care” was used as it is described as a resource for health independent of health status (Høy et al., ) and as a means to actualise self‐care resources (Söderhamn et al., ). “Experience” was also used as word truncation “exp*” to capture the older persons’ perspectives.…”