Background: To be an older woman, live alone, have chronic pain, and be dependent on support are all factors that may have an impact on daily life. One way to promote ability in everyday activities in people with pain-related conditions is to use individualized, integrated behavioral medicine in physical therapy interventions. How this kind of intervention works for older women living alone at home, with chronic pain, and dependent on formal care to manage their everyday lives has not been studied. The aim was to explore the feasibility of a study and to evaluate an individually tailored integrated behavioral medicine in physical therapy intervention for the target group of women. Materials and methods: The study was a 12-week randomized trial with two-group design. Primary effect outcomes were pain-related disability and morale. Secondary effect outcomes focused on pain-related beliefs, self-efficacy for exercise, concerns of falling, physical activity, and physical performance. Results: In total, 23 women agreed to participate in the study and 16 women completed the intervention. The results showed that the behavioral medicine in physical therapy intervention was feasible. No effects were seen on the primary effect outcomes. The experimental intervention seemed to improve the level of physical activity and self-efficacy for exercise. Some of the participants in both groups perceived that they could manage their everyday life in a better way after participation in the study. Conclusion: Results from this study are encouraging, but the study procedure and interventions have to be refined and tested in a larger feasibility study to be able to evaluate the effects of these kinds of interventions on pain-related disability, pain-related beliefs, self-efficacy in everyday activities, and morale in the target group. Further research is also needed to refine and evaluate effects from individualized reminder routines, support to collect self-report data, safety procedures for balance training, and training of personnel to enhance self-efficacy.

Purpose: To investigate 1)how older women who are living alone perceive chronic musculoskeletal pain,Activities of Daily Living (ADL), physical activity, affective distress,pain-related beliefs, pain management, and rate pain-related disability andmorale,  2) the relationships betweendemographic variables, ADL, physical activity, affective distress, pain-relatedbeliefs, and pain management with pain-related disability and morale.Method: The study had across-sectional and correlational design. Sixty women, living alone with chronicpain and community support aged ≥65 years were included.Results: The women were on average 81 years old and had lived with pain forabout 21.5 years. They reported low scores of affective distress,catastrophizing thoughts and self-efficacy, high scores of fear of movement,low degrees of pain-related disability, and low levels of  morale. The multiple regression analysisshowed that only catastrophizing thoughts significantlyexplained the variation in pain-related disability, and both affective distress and catastrophizing thoughtssignificantly explained the variation in morale. Conclusion: These older women livingalone with chronic pain reported similar prevalence ofchronic pain and pain-related disability but lower morale when comparingthe results with similar studies about older people in the same age group orolder people who are in need of help to manage their daily life. The only variable that was independely associated to bothpain-related disability and morale was catastrophizing. Further researchshould focus on identifying catastrophizing thougts,and also on developing a rehabilitation program based on a biopsychosocialperspective with the goal to decrease catastrophizing, pain-relateddisability, and increase morale for this target group

The study aimed to explore how home help service staff described their role in improving the abilities of older people, in particular, older women with chronic pain who are dependent on formal care, to perform everyday activities. Three focus group interviews were conducted, and a qualitative inductive thematic content analysis was used. The analysis resulted in one theme: struggling to improve the care recipients' opportunities for independence but being inhibited by complex environmental factors. By encouraging the care recipients to perform everyday activities, the staff perceived themselves to both maintain and improve their care recipients' independence and quality of life. An important goal for society and health care professionals is to improve older people's abilities to "age in place" and to enable them to age independently while maintaining their quality of life. A key resource is home help service staff, and this resource should be utilized in the best possible way.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore how older women living alone with chronic musculoskeletal pain, describe their ability in performing activities in everyday life and what could promote their ability in activities in everyday life as well as their perceived meaning of a changed ability to perform activities in everyday life. Method: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 women, and an inductive content analysis was used. Results: The results showed the importance of a daily rhythm of activities. Activities included in the daily rhythm were socializing with family and friends, physical activities, doing own activities as well as activities supported by relatives and the community. The activities described by the women also promoted their ability in activities in everyday life. Other findings were the women's perceived meaning of being independent and maintaining that independency, along with the meaning of accepting and adapting to a changed life situation. Conclusion: This paper concludes that it is important to be sensitive of individual needs regarding the daily rhythm of activities when health-care professionals intervene in the activities in everyday life of older women living alone, promote the women's independency, and enable them to participate in the community.