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Research on Aging
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The Meaning and Practice of Self- Care by Older Adults

A Qualitative Assessment

Ann Dill

Brown University

Phil Brown

Brown University

Desiree Ciambrone

Brown University

William Rakowski

Brown University

Drawing on material from qualitative interviews, this article examines self-care as a response to physical symptoms commonly experienced by older people. The analysis indicates that older persons approach, interpret, and treat their symptoms within both biomedical and psychosocial frameworks. Self-care responses appear to be learned early in life, reinforced throughout the life cycle, and formed in consultation with professional as well as lay persons. Symptom responses reflect and reinforce the meaning of social relations in individuals' lives, providing a symbolic medium for the assessment of present and past relationships, cross-generational connections, and past troubles and issues of personal identity. Findings suggest that categorizing sources of care into professional, informal, or self overly simplifies the symptom experience of older adults. Self-care goes beyond the acknowledgment of discomfort and subsequent treatment of symptoms; it involves the representation and interpretation of the self.

Research on Aging, Vol. 17, No. 1, 8-41 (1995)
DOI: 10.1177/0164027595171002
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