A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Analysis of Aging with a Childhood Onset Disability

In this qualitative study, we combined multiple interviews, field notes, life history review charts, and demographic questions to explore the life course experiences of 25 women, ages 55 to 65 years, who developed impairments due to paralytic polio during childhood. Based on a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology using thematic analysis, multiple themes emerged that traced their lives from childhood to later adulthood. The women described how they pushed their bodies and dismissed their physical decline as long as possible. The women's early experiences combined with the culturally defined role expectations for women to influence their perceptions of how to react to changing physical abilities with age.

This study was funded by the John A. Hartford Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Scholarship and the Donald D. Harrington Fellowship, The University of Texas at Austin. The authors acknowledge the contributions of David L. Kahn, PhD, RN, for his critique of the research methodology; Benjamin Gregg, PhD, for his discussions on hermeneutics and phenomenology; and Michael Erard, PhD, for his editorial review of a previous version of this article.