Not a load of old garbage : older men's attitudes to health and wellbeing

Six focus groups of older men (55 years of age and older, n=54) who are members of Older Men: New Ideas (OM:NI) were held. During the focus groups participants were asked to identify aspects of health and wellbeing which they felt were important. Meta-themes were drawn from the transcripts of these focus groups. 'Good health' (and conversely 'bad health') were seen as complex and multi-faceted. These different facets could be divided into four broad sections: personal (which included physical, mental and emotional good health), relationships (including relationship with partners, other key individuals and connections to social networks), environmental (participation in community and societal attitudes to older persons, men and older men) and spiritual. The concept of "spiritual health" was also of importance to the older men interviewed. The authors could find no reference in the literature which correlated precisely with this finding. This paper has drawn heavily from "Keeping the Balance" (Macdonald et.al. 2001) a discussion paper about men and healthy ageing which documents in more detail the findings and conclusions of this study.