Health Transitions in Recently Widowed Women: A Mixed Methods Study
The content of this blog has been reposted with permission from Laurie Blanchard at InfoLTC blog, at http://infoltc.blogspot.com/. Ms. Blanchard is the librarian at the Misericordia Health Centre Library, University of Manitoba Health Sciences Libraries in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Prior to working at the Misericordia Health Centre, Laurie worked at the J.W. Crane Memorial Library, Deer Lodge Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba for 20 years. She authors the InfoLTC blog for which she won a Manitoba Library Association's Innovation Award and the People’s Choice Award for Best Poster at the CHLA/ABSC 2009 Conference in Winnipeg. Ms. Blanchard is a former editor of the Bibliotheca Medica Canadiana (now the Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA) , and currently serves on the board of the CHLA. Ms. Blanchard's views are solely her own and do not necessarily represent the views of Clinical Geriatrics or of HMP Communications, LLC.
The article, Health Transitions in Recently Widowed Women: a mixed methods study, looks at how the loss of a partner can affect the health of women. It focuses on older women who live in the community, but it is an examination of how loss can affect the mental and physical health of an older person.
This article is open access - to retrieve it please download the article from here. To read the abstract, please see below.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
Older recently widowed women are faced with increased health risks and chronic conditions associated not only with bereavement, but also, older age. Loss and grief, adjusting to living alone, decreased income, and managing multiple chronic conditions can impact on older women's ability to transition following recent spousal bereavement. Providing appropriate, timely, and effective services to foster this life transition is of critical importance, yet few services directed towards these women exist in Australia, and there is little data describing the experiences of women and their support needs at this time.
METHODS
We conducted a longitudinal mixed method study using in-depth semi-structured interviews and questionnaires that were administered three times over a twelve month period to understand the experiences and needs of older women in the period following their husbands' deaths. Descriptive statistics and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis were used to analyse quantitative and qualitative data, respectively, prior to data integration.
RESULTS
Participants were twenty-one community-dwelling recently widowed older women who were an average age of 71 (SD 6.13) years. The majority of participants scored within normal ranges of depression, anxiety, and stress, yet a subset of participants had elevated levels of each of these constructs (37%, 27%, and 19%, respectively) throughout the study period. Positive self-reports of general health predominated, yet 86% of participants were living with one or more chronic condition and taking an average of 4 medications per day. The majority (76%) experienced exacerbations of existing conditions or were diagnosed with a new illness in the early bereavement period, leading to planned and unplanned hospitalisations and other health service use. Qualitative data provided insight into these experiences, the meanings women ascribed to them, and their reasons for enacting certain health risk behaviours.
CONCLUSION
The combination of co-morbidities, polypharmacy, and risk behaviors impacted on medication management and appeared associated with health events. The feminization of ageing and an increasing number of older women living alone with multiple chronic conditions represent significant challenges to health services and societal support systems. Older women's transition to widowhood signals concomitant health transitions and multidimensional support needs.
DiGiacomo, M.; Lewis, J.; Nolan, M.T.; Phillips, J. and Davidson, P.M. (2013). Health Transitions in Recently Widowed Women: a mixed methods study. BMC Health Services Research 13, 143.