Experienced Health in Older Women with Rheumatoid Arthritis

ABSTRACT

This study explored how older women with chronic illness and disability experience their own health. Data were collected in in-depth interviews with ten older women with rheumatoid arthritis. Data analysis and interpretation was carried out within a phenomenological-hermeneutic frame of understanding, which revealed five major themes: health as coping with everyday life, health as freedom, health as absence of inconvenience, health as togetherness and health as mental well-being. For older people with chronic illness and disability, good health found expression in general well-being. It was perceived as a state of equilibrium that the respondents sought to maintain through their own active choices.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-rated health
• health experiences
• disability
• chronic illness
• ageing
• rheumatoid arthritis
• health equilibrium