Healthy ageing, narrative method and research ethics

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe research and teaching activities related to healthy ageing, narrative methods and research ethics at the Nordic School of Public Health NHV during 1999 – 2012. Healthy ageing was conceived in terms of The World Health Organization’s (WHO) model of active ageing and of quality of life defined as a sense of well-being, meaning and value. Qualitative research on ageing and health conducted at NHV showed how elderly people themselves experience health and what they perceive to be health promoting. Narrative method was one the qualitative methods used in research at NHV. By adopting holistic and categorical content analysis the life stories of elderly Finnish migrants, the stories of home-dwelling persons about falls, and working persons’ stories of alcohol use were studied. The courses on research ethics took their point of departure in a model that describes the role of scientific, economic, aesthetic and ethical values in research.