Maintenance of own health after acute hospitalization - older people's experiences and perspectives on physical activity and nutrition

BACKGROUND: Studies indicate that prefrail and frail older people would like to exercise, but support from healthcare professionals is required. Knowledge regarding health maintenance in prefrail or frail older people in terms of physical training and nutrition after hospitalization is scarce.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the perspectives and experiences of prefrail and frail older people concerning physical training and nutrition one and four weeks after an acute medical hospitalization.

METHODS: Repeated individual semi-structured interviews with ten prefrail and frail older people were conducted. An inductive-deductive thematic analysis was performed.

RESULTS: Previous experiences with healthcare affected the views of the participants on training, nutrition, and health. Although the participants' knowledge about physical training was limited, they were positive about participating in training and obtaining knowledge about their condition. However, their positive intentions were not successfully achieved within four weeks. Despite positive intentions, appointments at the hospital, musculoskeletal pain, and other limitations hindered the intended training. Furthermore, changing nutritional habits seemed difficult.

CONCLUSION: The participants were positive toward participating in training and interested in knowledge addressing their condition. Nutritional habits were considered as a personal matter and difficult to change, as they had year long habits about when and how they ate. These findings indicate that a lack of dialogue about training and nutrition may contribute to lower health literacy in frail older people and may therefore affect the maintenance of health after an acute hospitalization. This suggests that physiotherapists should ensure that follow-up is discussed and planned in detail with patients before discharge.