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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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"It keeps me going"
— older people's perception of well-being and use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) | | Author(s) | Ava Lorenc, Angela Clow, Denise Forte, Nicola Robinson |
| Journal title | Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, vol 13, no 2, 2012 |
| Publisher | Emerald, 2012 |
| Pages | pp 135-144 |
| Source | www.emeraldinsight.com/qaoa.htm |
| Keywords | Well being ; Alternative medicine ; Self care capacity ; Attitude ; Qualitative Studies ; London. |
| Annotation | Significant proportions of older people appear to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Common CAM treatments used by older adults include nutritional supplements, herbal medicine, spiritual healing and chiropractic. This paper explores older peoples' decision making regarding CAM use and their perceptions and experiences of well-being. Qualitative focus groups were held at a community centre in southwest London with 37 volunteers aged over 61 years. Transcripts of the discussions were content analysed. Five themes emerged from the participants' discussions of well-being: physical well-being; impact on activity; emotional issues; community and health services; and keeping positive. A range of CAM was used, most commonly mind/body or physical therapies. The main reason for CAM use was to 'keep going' and maintain well-being. 'Keeping going' is often promoted by CAM, including manipulative and exercise therapies. Conventional medicine was perceived as central to well-being, with CAM used to address its limitations. Decision-making was rarely systematic: anecdotal information dominated, and disclosure to conventional practitioners was uncommon. Healthcare providers should consider exploring CAM use with older people and facilitating access to CAM information. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-170616231 A |
| Classmark | D:F:5HH: LK3: CA: DP: 3DP: 82L |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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