Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Faith Influences On Health Of Rural Appalachian Older Adults In East Tennessee: An Ethnonursing Study, Karina Elizabeth Strange

Doctoral Dissertations

As the U.S. older adult population increases and diversifies, healthcare providers need innovative, cost-effective, and culturally congruent approaches to gerontological nursing care. Decades of multidisciplinary evidence demonstrate that spirituality enhances older adult holistic health. However, although research about spirituality and nursing has become more culturally diverse, little is known about spirituality-health linkages of rural Appalachian older adults (RAOAs). This knowledge gap is significant because Appalachia leads the country in mortality related to chronic comorbidities such as heart disease, cancer, and depression. Given age, poverty, limited transportation, and health provider shortage areas, RAOAs experience severe health disparities. Moreover, spirituality is an …

The Relationship Of Basic Conditioning Factors, Knowledge, Self-Care Agency, Self-Care Behavior, And Urinary Sodium Excretion Of Hypertensive Older Adults: Testing Orem’S Self-Care Theory, Pratsani Srikan

Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding the powerful factors of sodium reduction benefits older adults by leading to reduce many health risks, lower the health care cost and diminished economic and social burden. This study had two aims: 1) to explore to what degree four factors--selected basic conditioning factors, knowledge of sodium reduction, sodium reduction self-care agency, and sodium reduction self-care behavior predict urinary sodium excretion in hypertensive seniors, 2) to test whether these variables related to sodium reduction were congruent with Orem’s Self-Care Theory.

Based on this theory, internal and external conditioning factors were proposed as either positively or negatively influencing an individual’s knowledge …