A Mixed-Methods Study of Older Adults in a Lifestyle Redesign

This poster will describe a mixed-methods study that is an extension of ongoing research funded by the National Institute on Aging entitled Health Mediating Effects of the Well Elderly Program; R01 AG021108; Florence Clark, Principal Investigator. In the parent study, the investigators propose an explanatory model encompassing the effects of an occupational therapy intervention on aging outcomes, mediated by healthy activity, active coping, social support, perceived control, positive reinterpretation-based coping, and stress-related biomarkers. This mixed-methods study is utilizing qualitative research methods to examine the theoretical model of the parent study. Interviews with participants are being analyzed using modified analytic induction, and the results will be compared to those obtained from the quantitative analyses in the parent study. To obtain maximum sampling variation, the investigator selected 4 divergent research settings, and purposely sampled 22 participants from those settings who were differentially affected by the Lifestyle Redesign intervention of the parent study. This sampling strategy will increase the probability of finding individual differences that are not readily apparent using solely quantitative methods. There are three main hypotheses: 1) the model will be supported when examining it qualitatively; 2) there will be individual differences in the salience of different mediators; and 3) the relationships of the mediators to each other and to the outcomes will differ within and across the research settings. Research is still in progress, however the results of this study will ultimately include quantitative profiles of each of the participants and research settings, narrative summaries for each participant, a graphical model for each participant and each setting that integrates quantitative and qualitative data, a typology of the models generated, a qualitative summary of all the cases collectively, a quantitative summary of all the cases in the parent study collectively (N=480), and a summary of the correspondence between the aggregate qualitative and quantitative findings. This study will contribute to the discipline of occupational science by increasing understanding of how activity-based interventions affect older adults, adding to existing theory on how physical and social environments impact interventions, and expanding knowledge about the validity of quantitative modeling by examining individual lives