Attaining 'healthy life' as perceived by rural elder community dwellers: A narrative analysis

A qualitative approach was taken to study the meaning of attaining “healthy life” for elder rural community dwellers. The study provides insight into issues of aging within the rural context. Parse's (1992) human becoming theory and Polkinghorne's (1988) narrative analysis method of data collection and analysis support the imperative for culturally competent research in rural areas. Participants were from rural counties in both Upstate New York and West Virginia. Narrative inquiry utilized the natural inclination of elders to reminisce as they told their accounts of “healthy life”. This included unstructured interviews, participant observation, and informal focus groups. Three layers of meaing of healthy life unfolded throughout the analysis process: (a) initial understanding, (b) cognitive understanding, and (c) interpretive understanding. Meaning came from participants' views and researcher's insights.