Self-care activities captured through discussion among community-dwelling older adults

Four separate focus group sessions were conducted in the Detroit metropolitan area to invite vital elders to speak freely about their health, health problems, health practices, and how they maintain their bio-psycho-social and spiritual well-being. Twenty-eight participants were interviewed. The majority were African American, female, widowed, Protestant, and had achieved a high school or greater educational level. Field notes and taped interviews were transcribed for data analysis. Together, two raters completed data reduction and coding for theme identification and categorization. A holistic nursing model was used to guide the content analysis. Five themes were revealed that described the context of well-being for community-dwelling elders: faith ways, positive energy, support systems, wellness activities, and affirmative self-appraisal. Well-being depended on an awareness of how lifestyle impacted the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual health of each individual. This study lends credence to interventions aimed at promoting holistic health care for community-dwelling elders.