Читать книгу Contemporary Health Studies - Louise Warwick-Booth - Страница 52

In terms of age, research shows that understandings about health become more complex and develop ‘multi-layers’ of understanding over a person’s lifespan (Hardey, 1998). Blaxter’s (1990) Health and Lifestyles study found that older people tended to define health more in terms of being able to function and do things or care for themselves. Much of the research claiming to focus on lay perspectives in older age actually examines illness experience rather than concepts of health or well-being (in common with other research into ‘health’ across the lifespan). What it tends to reveal is that the onset of chronic diseases is viewed as being inevitable in older age and part of normal transition through this specific life-stage, as such challenges to ‘health’ in older age are more or less anticipated (see Lawton, 2003 for an overview). In addition being ‘independent’ is strongly linked to ideas about being healthy (Lloyd, 2000).