Expert’s View on Central Components of the Actional Model of Older People’s Coping with Health-Related Declines: A Pilot Study with Professional Caregivers

Abri & Boll (2023) proposed the “Actional Model of Older People´s Coping with Health-Related Declines” to explain the use of various action alternatives of older persons for dealing with diseases, functional declines, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. It draws on a broad knowledge base: an action-theoretical model of intentional self-development, models of the use of assistive technologies (ATs) and medical services, qualitative studies on reasons for using or not-using ATs, and quantitative studies on older people’s health-related goals. The present study aims to gather evidence to further refine this model by additionally relying on expert knowledge from professional caregivers serving older people. Six experienced geriatric nurses working in mobile care services or residential care facilities were interviewed about key components of the above model in relation to 17 older people aged 70 to 95 with stroke, arthrosis, or mild dementia. The results revealed additional goals of reducing or preventing health-related discrepancies beyond those already included in the model (e.g., moving without pain, doing things alone, driving a car again, social return). Moreover, new motivating or demotivating goals
for using certain action possibilities were found (e.g., to be at home, to be alone,
to rest, to motivate other older people). Finally, some new factors were identified
from the biological-functional (e.g., illness, fatigue), technological (e.g., pain inducing ATs, maladaptive devices), and social contexts (e.g., lack of staff time) that are
likely to promote or hinder the use of certain action possibilities. Implications for
refining the model and future research are discussed.