The overall aim of this anthropological research is to discover and examine minority elders' cultural responses to illness, including: 1) their experience of illness, the interpretations they place on illness, cultural models for understanding illness, and use of biomedical and indigenous health care; 2) cultural meanings minority elders and their families attach to old age; 30 the role of the family in illness management and recovery; and 4) community resources, both formal and informal, that are considered or utilized in specific situations. The research is undertaken through an examination of individuals' and families' responses to illness upon discharge from acute care hospitalization with a changed health status, in which a temporary or permanent decrease in functional ability occurs.
Four specific aims will be carried out by studying 150 minority persons over the age of 65 and their family members for a period of one year each, using qualitative methods and some measures of health status that can be quantified: 10 to examine the experience of illness and its cultural interpretation in old age; 2) to examine the changes that occur after hospitalization in living arrangements, family involvement, social activities, and utilization of community resources; 3) to examine the full range of this experience by studying individuals in three groups of 50 each who are discharged from the hospital to the community with a changed health status: a) Black/African-Americans, b) Hispanic-Americans, and c) Asian-Americans; 4) to examine this experience longitudinally by interviewing individuals and their family members three times; 1) shortly after discharge; 2) 6 months later; and 30 one year after discharge. Qualitative analysis will be undertaken in a systematic, five-step progression, and will be supported by quantitative analysis of health measurement data and qualitatively-derived data.
