IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/hin/jnlnrp/527920.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Living with Stigma: Depressed Elderly Persons’ Experiences of Physical Health Problems

Author

Listed:
  • Anne Lise Holm
  • Anne Lyberg
  • Elisabeth Severinsson

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to deepen the understanding of depressed elderly persons’ lived experiences of physical health problems. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 depressed elderly persons who suffer from physical health problems. A hermeneutic analysis was performed, yielding one main theme, living with stigma, and three themes: longing to be taken seriously, being uncertain about whether the pain is physical or mental, and a sense of living in a war zone. The second theme comprised two subthemes, feeling like a stranger and feeling dizzy, while the third had one subtheme: afraid of being helpless and dependent on others. Stigma deprives individuals of their dignity and reinforces destructive patterns of isolation and hopelessness. Nurses should provide information in a sensitive way and try to avoid diagnostic overshadowing. Effective training programmes and procedures need to be developed with more focus on how to handle depressive ill health and physical problems in older people.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Lise Holm & Anne Lyberg & Elisabeth Severinsson, 2014. "Living with Stigma: Depressed Elderly Persons’ Experiences of Physical Health Problems," Nursing Research and Practice, Hindawi, vol. 2014, pages 1-8, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:hin:jnlnrp:527920
    DOI: 10.1155/2014/527920
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/NRP/2014/527920.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/NRP/2014/527920.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1155/2014/527920?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jacoby, Ann, 1994. "Felt versus enacted stigma: A concept revisited: Evidence from a study of people with epilepsy in remission," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 269-274, January.
    2. Anne Lyberg & Anne Lise Holm & Erna Lassenius & Ingela Berggren & Elisabeth Severinsson, 2013. "Older Persons’ Experiences of Depressive Ill-Health and Family Support," Nursing Research and Practice, Hindawi, vol. 2013, pages 1-8, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Tse-Chuan & Shoff, Carla & Kim, Seulki, 2022. "Social isolation, residential stability, and opioid use disorder among older Medicare beneficiaries: Metropolitan and non-metropolitan county comparison," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    2. Sujan Babu Marahatta & Rakchya Amatya & Srijana Adhikari & Deena Giri & Sarina Lama & Nils Kaehler & Komal Raj Rijal & Suchana Marahatta & Bipin Adhikari, 2018. "Perceived stigma of leprosy among community members and health care providers in Lalitpur district of Nepal: A qualitative study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Ivona MilaÄ ić Vidojević & Dragana à urić JoÄ ić & Oliver ToÅ¡ković, 2012. "Comparative study of experienced and anticipated stigma in Serbia and the world," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 58(4), pages 355-361, July.
    4. Cynthia E. Devers & Todd Dewett & Yuri Mishina & Carrie A. Belsito, 2009. "A General Theory of Organizational Stigma," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 154-171, February.
    5. Timmermans, Stefan & Tietbohl, Caroline, 2018. "Fifty years of sociological leadership at Social Science and Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 209-215.
    6. Anderson, Moji & Elam, Gillian & Gerver, Sarah & Solarin, Ijeoma & Fenton, Kevin & Easterbrook, Philippa, 2008. "HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination: Accounts of HIV-positive Caribbean people in the United Kingdom," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 790-798, September.
    7. Person, Bobbie & Bartholomew, L. Kay & Gyapong, Margaret & Addiss, David G. & van den Borne, Bart, 2009. "Health-related stigma among women with lymphatic filariasis from the Dominican Republic and Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 30-38, January.
    8. Easter, Michele M., 2012. "“Not all my fault”: Genetics, stigma, and personal responsibility for women with eating disorders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1408-1416.
    9. Brewis, Alexandra A., 2014. "Stigma and the perpetuation of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 152-158.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hin:jnlnrp:527920. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mohamed Abdelhakeem (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.hindawi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.