Older women from former Yugoslavia and native-born older women's activities in daily life

Activity-based, health promotion has proven to be effective in later life. Even if, elderly immigrants, run a larger risk of ill-health compared to other groups, such health promotive activities are rather unexplored and development is needed in the area. To effectively design such activities, we need to know if older immigrants ' activities differs from the activities that older people born in Sweden do. The aim of the study is to identify and describe the activities of daily living in elderly migrant women, comparing them with the activities of elderly women born in Sweden and to identify any differences in what motivates them to perform the tasks that they do. The aim is also to examine whether and, if so, describe how older immigrant women's activities in the daily life has changed when moving to Sweden, as well as how they can master these changes. Fifty elderly immigrant women over 60 years of age were recruited in Jönköping. The largest group of immigrants over the age of 60 in Jönköping County are people from former Yugoslavia and who lived in Sweden from 11 to 25 years. Recruitment has therefore focused on this group. The material has been collected regarding women from former Yugoslavia to be compared with an already-collected material that includes older women born in Sweden. The group of older women from former Yugoslavia used the same interview form, translated into Serbo-Croatian, as women born in Sweden, but with a couple of supplementary questions. The interviews were conducted by people who speak Serbo-Croatian. The result may be the basis for the development of an activity-based, health promotion programs for this group of women.

This research project is supported by the National Society for Research on Ageing.

Contact: Ann Johansson