Psychology, Department of
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
2007
Abstract
Living with chronic co-morbidities implies long-lasting, always present conditions associated with highly variable health trajectories. In this study, ecological momentary assessment was used to explore nine older women's experiences of living with co-morbidities. Each participant completed a daily diary, which focused on 10 variables related to energy, pain, effort expended, and an overall health rating, for 21 days. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to explore intra-individual variation in daily health experiences and health-related burden, and determine the extent to which health-related burden was related to daily health experiences. Each of the daily health experience variables sipiificantly predicted health-related burden. Over half of the variation was attributed to the predictor variables. These findings reveal the dynamic nature of living with multiple chronic conditions and demonstrate the utility of daily diaries for measuring fluctuating states of health in community-dwelling older wofnen.
Comments
Published in the Journal of Theory Construction & Testing (2007) 11(2): 67-71. Copyright 2007, Tucker Publications. Used by permission. http://www.tuckerpub.com