Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is common and a known risk factor for social disengagement in later life. This study explored social functioning following a diagnosis of ARHL. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach we developed an interview schedule to advance a grounded theory from data collected from six older adults who used either hearing aids or cochlear implants. Interview questions concerned social functioning as well as focusing on their perspective of the impact of ARHL on cognitive functioning. We describe a grounded theory conceived as ‘Reconnecting to Others’. This theory posits that participants faced social challenges in relation to their ARHL, and resolved these challenges partly through the use of hearing aids and cochlear implantation. The theory also emphasises the importance of help from other hearing aid users for new users, and corroborates prior findings about strategies older adults with ARHL use to cope with their hearing impairment in various social situations. Once hearing aids and cochlear implants are used and adapted to with the help of peers, participants completed their journey by helping others who had received diagnoses of ARHL. Additionally, participants spoke of the pleasure of hearing again. Interestingly, no participant felt that their ARHL had impacted their cognitive functioning. Our theory provides a basis for explaining existing quantitative findings as well as creating new hypotheses for future testing.

The World Health Organization claims that mobility is vital to healthy ageing and is the best guarantee of older adults being able to cope and remain in their homes and communities. Mobility enables older adults to maintain their physical health, independence and participation in society. In general, mobility is examined objectively, from a quantitative perspective where mobility is measured as physical movement (e.g. physical activity) and/or travel behaviour (e.g. trips, modes and distances). The predominant focus on the functional aspects of mobility tends to overlook the subjective (e.g. perceptions, attitudes and motivations) and temporal dimensions of older adults’ mobility experiences. Using a constructivist grounded theory methodology, we conducted 24 in-depth interviews with six highly active community-dwelling older adults with low income, aged 65 or over, over a period of four years. Our analysis identified the following themes: maintaining a sense of self, being resourceful, openness to engagement, engaging in superficial contact, experiencing social capital, accessing transportation, leaving the immediate neighbourhood and facing affordability. Findings illustrate that intrapersonal factors, in addition to environmental (built, social and cultural) and temporal-level factors, play a crucial role in mobility. In the future, this gained knowledge can be incorporated into approaches to study the multiple interrelated factors and their interrelations that influence older adults’ mobility.

Decision-making among older patients with stroke, their families and professionals has been extensively studied in a Western context, but there has been little prior work in China. The study reported here explored how decision-making took place between older people with stroke, their family carers and professionals in an acute care context in mainland China using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documentary analysis. Constant comparative analysis of the data was carried out. This paper focuses on the key social process of ‘hiding’ and its dynamic relationship with the core category ‘keeping the peace’. In order to meet the traditional Chinese cultural value of ‘maintaining harmony’, both family carers and professionals hid essential information from older stroke survivors who, as a consequence, were effectively precluded from playing an active role in major decisions. In understanding ‘hiding’, the paper draws upon both Chinese cultural values and ‘awareness context theory’ and in so doing questions the relevance to the Chinese context of key Western notions such as involvement in health-care decision-making. A better understanding of the experiences of decision-making processes between older people with stroke, their family carers and professionals in China will help professionals to provide the best possible support and care whilst promoting informed decision-making amongst all concerned.

This article discusses the First Nations sample of a larger study on dementia care decisions and knowledge sharing. The purpose is to enhance understanding of the process of knowledge sharing among health care practitioners (HCPs), care partners, and persons with dementia (PWDs) within a rural First Nations community. A constructivist grounded theory methodology was used. Nineteen interviews were conducted at three points in time with two dementia care networks that included two PWDs, three care partners, and two HCPs. A sharing dementia care knowledge model was conceived, with the PWDs and their care partners at the centre. Knowledge sharing in the model was represented by three broad themes: (1) developing trusting relationships, (2) accessing and adapting the information, and (3) applying the information. Culturally sensitive approaches were essential to developing trusting relationships. Once developed, knowledge sharing through accessing, adapting, and applying the information was possible.

What constitutes a quality research student learning experience? Using an interpretive social sciences approach, the tradition of autoethnography and the interpretive processes of reflexivity and constructivist grounded theory, the individual and collective lived research student experiences of three students were constructed/interpreted and (re)constructed/(re)interpreted to provide insights into answers to this question. Each student had completed one research program and, at the time of publication, was currently enrolled in a doctoral program. Based on these three students' autoethnographies, quality research student experiences engender personal, social, supervisor, research profession, learning communities and other life connectivities. These connectivities are generated through conducive conditions for learning, communities of practice and inclusive research cultures wherein research students experience and do research in order to become researchers, and to belong to research communities.