The prevention and management of chronic diseases involves self-care behaviors, and there is little known about self-care behaviors among older minorities. This purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences with and meanings of self-care behaviors among African American and Hispanic women who are 50 years or older and face a high risk for chronic disease morbidity and who have barriers to health care access. During 1999, community-based organizations in the City of Houston that were known to serve predominantly African American or Hispanic women on Medicaid helped recruit approximately 50 women to participate in six focus groups of 3 to 10 women each. The three Hispanic women’s groups were conducted in Spanish. The groups lasted on average two hours and were recorded on audio tape. The audio data were transcribed, translated, and imported into Ethnograph for analysis using a grounded theory approach. The results provide insight into minority women’s health priorities and concerns, sources of information and support, and experiences with informal and formal self-care behaviors. In particular, the data provide insight into the social context of self-care behaviors. Future interventions to promote self-care behaviors among high-risk, minority populations should approach chronic health issues holistically and target individuals as well as their larger social context including kin, peers, and professional health care providers.
Learning Objectives: 1. To describe the experiences with and meanings of self-care behaviors among older African American and Hispanic women 2. To identify channels of influence from interpersonal dynamics of self, informal, formal care behaviors among older African American and Hispanic women 3. To recognize chronic health issues among older African American and Hispanic women that may influence self-care interventions
Keywords: Self-Management, Minority Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.