Life expectancy is increasing in all the Nordic countries, and health-promoting research is crucial to meet both opportunities and challenges as society has an increasing number of older adults. Nivestam and her colleagues in the Nordic Health Promotion Research Network have reviewed 28 doctoral theses on health promotion, and ageing and health, published in the Nordic countries in 2011-2021 and which had participants in their studies who were 65 years or older. They looked in particular at which theories were used and at older adults' participation in the research. Participation is a guiding principle in health promotion.
Most research from Sweden
The number of theses that included the word "health promotion" in the title, as a keyword or in abstract, varied considerably between the Nordic countries. The researchers were surprised that there were so few theses from other Nordic countries focusing on health promotion, ageing and health.
– We found the most theses from Sweden, a total of 19. Denmark had two, Finland four and Norway three. Definitions of the term health promotion are completely absent in several theses. We also saw that older people's participation in the research process rarely occurred and that the term "empowerment" is not used very often. It became clear to me that we can be much better at involving older adults in the research process, says Anna Nivestam.
Just one thesis on the participation of older adults
In the reviewed theses, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used and data were mainly collected from healthy older adults living at home. However, only one of the theses clearly described that older adults were involved in the process. This type of study that maps the state of knowledge is important to find out what more research needs to be done.
– And what we as researchers can get better at. The compilation we have made can be a support for doctoral students and other researchers in health promotion, ageing and health, both in terms of finding useful theories and becoming more aware of the importance of defining the concepts used, says Anna Nivestam.
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