Healthy aging with long‑term health conditions

PhD-student:

Ingrid Olsson

PI:

Åsa Audulv, associate professor, Department of Nursing, Umeå University

Co-researcher:

Ulf Isaksson, associate professor, Department of Nursing, Umeå University

Co-researcher:

Sabine Björk, associate professor, Department of Nursing, Umeå University

Co-researcher:

George Kephart, professor, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University.

Co-researcher:

Tanya Packard, professor, School of Occupational Therapy, Dalhousie University.

Co-researcher:

Anna Nordström, professor, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University

Project summary:

Older adults are more likely to suffer from one or more long-term health conditions, for example heart failure, diabetes and/or COPD. In addition, older adults often experience disruptive life transitions such as retirement and loss of family and friends, which can affect their ability to manage their health conditions in everyday life. Despite this, there is little research on older people's self-management difficulty and their need for self-management support. The purpose of this project is to better understand how older adults with long-term health conditions rate their self-management difficulty and what support they need to maintain good health.

In the first part of the project, the new Patient Reported Outcome Measure of Self-management of Chronic Conditions (PRISM-CC), is translated to Swedish and validated in a population of older adults. This in close collaboration with the IC3RG group in Canada. In the second part of the project, we will describe self-management difficulty among older adults in northern Sweden and how self-management varies in relation to gender, socio-economic factors and type of disease. Further, qualitative interviews with a sub-sample of the participants will help us understand obstacles and facilitators for self-management among older adults.

A better understanding of older adult’s self-management difficulty and need for support will build a foundation for further developments of self-management support initiatives tailored for older people, and can thus promote individuals own ability to stay active and healthy despite long-term health conditions.

Funding:

Strategic funding from the Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University, Sweden