IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jocnur/v26y2017i7-8p1106-1118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health promotion among older adults in Austria: a qualitative study

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Boggatz
  • Christoph Matthias Meinhart

Abstract

Aims and objectives To determine the types of attitudes to health promotion among older Austrians. Background Health promotion in old age becomes increasingly important in the current period of demographic transition. Interventions are likely to be successful if they take the attitude of older persons into consideration. There may be several types of attitudes to health promotion among older adults. Design Cross‐sectional qualitative study. Methods Semi‐structured interviews were conducted in a purposive sample consisting of 36 home‐dwelling older persons from local communities in the federal province of Salzburg, Austria. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis according to Mayring and subsequent construction of types. Results There are three main types of attitudes to health promotion. ‘Health promoters through everyday activities’ considered domestic work and walks to be sufficient in keeping up their health. Fitness‐oriented persons practised sports of some type. Users of complementary methods practised such methods to some degree. These types of attitudes could be further differentiated according to their outcome expectations. In addition to benefits for health, socialising was also an important outcome. Physical decline may reduce a fitness‐oriented attitude, whereas encouragement by others may trigger it. Conclusion Older adults have various attitudes to health promotion, but these are not immutable. Relevance to clinical practice Health promotion programmes that are not restricted to a narrow focus on health but provide the opportunity to socialise may support older adults in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Boggatz & Christoph Matthias Meinhart, 2017. "Health promotion among older adults in Austria: a qualitative study," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(7-8), pages 1106-1118, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:26:y:2017:i:7-8:p:1106-1118
    DOI: 10.1111/jocn.13603
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13603
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jocn.13603?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kerime Kübra Koç & Gülbahar Korkmaz Aslan, 2023. "Older People’s Perception and Experience Regarding Health Promotion in Turkey: A Qualitative Study," Clinical Nursing Research, , vol. 32(4), pages 850-860, May.
    2. Hyunjung Moon & Sunkyung Cha & Eunyoung Park, 2020. "Perceived Barriers to Rural Elderly Women’s Health-Promoting Behaviors: An Ecological Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-12, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:26:y:2017:i:7-8:p:1106-1118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2702 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.