Everyday life experiences of Chinese community-dwelling oldest old who live alone at home

Abstract

Purpose: Older adults aged ≥ 80 years living alone at home are more likely to experience challenges. Daily life experiences regarding living alone are still limited in the Asian context. This study explored the everyday life experiences of older Chinese residents living alone at home. Research questions included: (1) How do Chinese community-dwelling old people describe everyday life experiences related to living alone? (2) What kind of difficulties and needs do Chinese community-dwelling older people living alone face in everyday lives? (3) How do Chinese community-dwelling older people cope with challenges faced in their everyday lives related to living alone? Methods: This was qualitative descriptive research. Purposive sampling was adopted to recruit 13 participants aged 80–92 years of age from communities and one hospital. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data which was analysed by conventional content analysis. Results: Three themes were identified: theme 1–difficulty in finding a sense of belonging, theme 2–striving to maintain independence, theme 3–hard to gain a sense of control. Conclusions: This study provided novel insights into understanding the difficulties and needs of Chinese older people living alone at home. Three key challenges and associated strategies they used to cope with in daily lives were presented.