Unravelling Swedish informal caregivers' Generalised Resistance Deficits

Generalized Resistance Deficits in inmates with hypertension: missing resources that limit health

OBJECTIVE

to understand the Generalized Resistance Deficits of people deprived of liberty with hypertension in a Brazilian prison unit.

METHOD

qualitative research, anchored in Salutogenesis, carried out with 38 people with hypertension from a Brazilian prison unit, from February to July 2022, with a semi-structured interview with open-ended questions, whose analysis was thematic, explaining the limitations to health in prison.

RESULTS

13 Generalized Resistance Deficits were reported, mostly related to the prison environment and, to a lesser extent, to the social group and the individual, respectively. Living in prison for people with hypertension implies living with a high number of Generalized Resistance Deficits, accentuating the movement towards the disease pole.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

knowing Generalized Resistance Deficits allows directing health promotion to support the use of available Generalized Resistance Resources and contributes to the expansion of intersectoral policies.

Me and You in Caregivinghood - Dyadic resistance resources and deficits out of the informal caregiver's perspective

Objective: To present Specific and Generalized Resistance Resources (SRRs/GRRs) and Deficits (SRDs/GRDs) described by 32 informal caregivers as originating from themselves and their older adult carerecipients as dyads. Method: Salutogenic interviewing was used to assemble data from caregivers. A theory-driven, memo-guided and comparative analysis using within- and across- case analysis was applied to unravel resources and deficits influencing the outcomes when they managed tension associated with caregiving. Findings:Living in fellowship in a well-functioning dyad unites the essence of having access to dyadic SRRs/GRRs. Such access enables dyads to use their specific dyadic tension management to resolve challenges through cooperation, derives 'positive' life-experiences and preserves dyad functioning. Struggling alone in a malfunctioning dyad indicates the presence of dyadic SRDs/GRDs counteracting such a development. If these SRDs/GRDs accumulate, the dyad become less able to resolve challenges, 'negative' life-experiences accumulates, the carerecipient's capability to cooperate decreases, caregiver's workload increases, the dyad becomes increasingly malfunctioning and moves towards the point where caregiving ends due to lack of usable SRRs/GRRs. Conclusions: Findings reveals the complex duality of caregiving and the necessity to assess all available SRRs/GRRs and SRDs/GRDs for caregiving dyads, including out of the carerecipient's perspective. Appropriate 'salutogenic' support reduces SRDs/GRDs, makes available SRRs/GRRs usable or provides alternative SRRs/GRRs, thereby dyadic tension management and dyadic functionality is preserved during this phase of life labelled Caregivinghood. The study adds new knowledge to the salutogenic framework regarding central, theoretical concepts and suggests how data for health promoting initiatives conducted the 'salutogenic way' may be acquired.

Living with a spouse with chronic illness - the challenge of balancing demands and resources

Background

The number of partners providing informal care for their chronically ill spouse is rising, and they describe their daily life as demanding. The aim of this paper was to describe the partners’ experiences of living with a person with chronic illness and how they manage everyday life.

Methods

A descriptive design with a qualitative approach was used. A purposive sample of 16 Swedish partners with a chronically ill spouse were interviewed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results

Four main themes were identified: ‘Managing challenges in daily life,’ ‘Seeking support and use own capabilities to manage life,’ ‘Appreciating the good parts of life’ and ‘Adapting to constant changes and an uncertain future’. Their experiences of support from formal care providers varied; they expressed the need for more assistance from the health care sector.

Conclusions

The partners experienced many challenges in everyday life when providing informal care for their chronically ill spouse. This affected both their physical and psychological health, as they had limited time for themselves. The partners seemed to receive more support from their informal network than from formal care providers. In handling daily life, the partners balanced demands and resources to identify possibilities to move forward and find meaning in life. This is congruent with theories by Antonovsky, and Folkman and Lazarus that describes meaningfulness and how to handle challenges in everyday life.