Older Women’s Experience Of Everyday Life In Old Age: Past, Present And Future

Abstract

Aims: To explore how older Norwegian women living at home experience ageing, and how their everyday life has been influenced by their encounters with the challenges of life. Methods: A qualitative design, interviewing ten women age 90 or older, was employed. Results: The overall theme of the findings is how everyday life in old age is influenced by past, present and future. The subcategories focus on (a) changes in daily life, (b) giving an account of life as it is, (c) various perceptions of experienced loss, and finally, (d) thoughts about the future. Conclusions: Older women need the opportunity to reflect upon their past, present and future existence to have a good everyday life in old age. Our findings might be important in shaping health promotion interventions for older people.

Keywords:

• Sense of coherence
• continuity theory
• older women
• qualitative content analysis

Acknowledgments

We thank the women for partaking in the study.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Author contributions

Astrid Bergland has participated in design, data collection, data analysis and has written the article.

Åshild Slettebø has participated in design, data analysis and has written the article.

Both authors have approved the final version and have agreed to submit the manuscript to the journal.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Astrid Bergland

Astrid Bergland, PT, PhD, is a professor of physiotherapy and Health Sciences at Oslo and Akershus University College, Oslo, Norway.

Åshild Slettebø

Åshild Slettebø, RN, PhD is a professor in Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway.