Older Adults' Self-Assessments of Health: Personal and Contextual Influences Throughout the Life Course

The purpose of this study was to examine older adults' perceptions of health by exploring life course factors perceived as shaping the meanings of health in their daily lives. Using life course and life span perspectives as the theoretical framework to guide this mixed method study, I identifi...

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Main Author: Kretzer, Sara Elizabeth
Other Authors: Human Development
Format: Others
Published: Virginia Tech 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42765
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05212002-110859/
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spelling ndltd-VTETD-oai-vtechworks.lib.vt.edu-10919-427652020-09-29T05:43:33Z Older Adults' Self-Assessments of Health: Personal and Contextual Influences Throughout the Life Course Kretzer, Sara Elizabeth Human Development Roberto, Karen A. Henderson, Tammy L. Mancini, Jay A. Life Course Perspective Meanings of Health Self-ratings of Health The purpose of this study was to examine older adults' perceptions of health by exploring life course factors perceived as shaping the meanings of health in their daily lives. Using life course and life span perspectives as the theoretical framework to guide this mixed method study, I identified the contextual factors that influence older adults' health perceptions and behaviors. Through self-report questionnaires from 111 individuals (M age = 74 yrs., S.D. = 5.64) and in-depth interviews with 30 of the older adults from the larger sample (11 women and 19 men), I gained an understanding of how individual experiences and societal expectations influence the meanings older adults attach to health. Results indicated that being female and having more years of formal education were associated with higher health ratings. Findings from the qualitative inquiry enhanced the quantitative results by highlighting the contextual factors that influenced older adults' health ratings. Examination of how the older adults came to their health rating provided definitions of health based on physical status, activity level, and social comparisons. Life course influences emerged as the older adults described what their health means to them. Activity level, independence, and age prescriptions were reflections of childhood health experiences that the older adults used to relate their present meaning of health in their everyday lives. Master of Science 2014-03-14T21:36:31Z 2014-03-14T21:36:31Z 2002-04-22 2002-05-21 2003-05-24 2002-05-24 Thesis etd-05212002-110859 http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42765 http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05212002-110859/ FinalThesis.pdf In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ application/pdf Virginia Tech
collection NDLTD
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic Life Course Perspective
Meanings of Health
Self-ratings of Health
spellingShingle Life Course Perspective
Meanings of Health
Self-ratings of Health
Kretzer, Sara Elizabeth
Older Adults' Self-Assessments of Health: Personal and Contextual Influences Throughout the Life Course
description The purpose of this study was to examine older adults' perceptions of health by exploring life course factors perceived as shaping the meanings of health in their daily lives. Using life course and life span perspectives as the theoretical framework to guide this mixed method study, I identified the contextual factors that influence older adults' health perceptions and behaviors. Through self-report questionnaires from 111 individuals (M age = 74 yrs., S.D. = 5.64) and in-depth interviews with 30 of the older adults from the larger sample (11 women and 19 men), I gained an understanding of how individual experiences and societal expectations influence the meanings older adults attach to health. Results indicated that being female and having more years of formal education were associated with higher health ratings. Findings from the qualitative inquiry enhanced the quantitative results by highlighting the contextual factors that influenced older adults' health ratings. Examination of how the older adults came to their health rating provided definitions of health based on physical status, activity level, and social comparisons. Life course influences emerged as the older adults described what their health means to them. Activity level, independence, and age prescriptions were reflections of childhood health experiences that the older adults used to relate their present meaning of health in their everyday lives. === Master of Science
author2 Human Development
author_facet Human Development
Kretzer, Sara Elizabeth
author Kretzer, Sara Elizabeth
author_sort Kretzer, Sara Elizabeth
title Older Adults' Self-Assessments of Health: Personal and Contextual Influences Throughout the Life Course
title_short Older Adults' Self-Assessments of Health: Personal and Contextual Influences Throughout the Life Course
title_full Older Adults' Self-Assessments of Health: Personal and Contextual Influences Throughout the Life Course
title_fullStr Older Adults' Self-Assessments of Health: Personal and Contextual Influences Throughout the Life Course
title_full_unstemmed Older Adults' Self-Assessments of Health: Personal and Contextual Influences Throughout the Life Course
title_sort older adults' self-assessments of health: personal and contextual influences throughout the life course
publisher Virginia Tech
publishDate 2014
url http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42765
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05212002-110859/
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