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Health capital in everyday life of the oldest old living in their own homes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2014

ASTRID BERGLAND  and
ÅSHILD SLETTEBØ
ASTRID BERGLAND*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo and Akershus University College, Oslo, Norway.
ÅSHILD SLETTEBØ
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo and Akershus University College, Oslo, Norway. Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway.
*
Address for correspondence: Astrid Bergland, Oslo University College, Postboks 4 St. Olavs Plass, 0130 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

As more people experience old age as a time of growth and productivity, more research is needed that explores how they master everyday life. This paper reports on a qualitative study that explored how ten older women age 90 years or more experience and cope with the challenges of everyday life with a salutogenic perspective. The findings suggest that health resources such as positive expectation, reflection and adaptation, function and active contribution, relations and home, contribute to the health capital of women. These health resources were of importance for the women's experience of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness in daily life. Health capital is a meaningful concept for understanding coping in everyday life by older people.

Keywords

health capitalqualitative designeveryday lifesalutogenesisadaptive strategies
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 35 , Issue 10 , November 2015 , pp. 2156 - 2175
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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