With and for older people – preventing health deterioration through a co-research model

Prevention of health deterioration among older people is considered a priority in Sweden to ameliorate the increased demand for health and care services that is anticipated to accompany its ageing population.

However, ongoing FORTE funded collaborative research with municipal prevention units, primary care, pensioner organisations and civic society actors has highlighted that older care-experienced people’s perspective on the topic is poorly understood.

Without knowing the health priorities that these older people want or need to see within current prevention initiatives, there is a risk that prevention expenditure fails to achieve its goals of delayed and reduced service demand.

This planning project aims to map older people’s health deterioration prevention priorities in a co-research model, and further, to match these priorities with those of relevant health, social care, and civic society actors.

This planning project adopts the principles of Participatory Action Research and will be delivered by researchers at the Stockholm Gerontology Research Centre, with and by a group of older care-experienced people and in close collaboration with Södermalms city administration.

An approach based on the James Lind Alliance priority setting partnership will be used to identify the research and service priorities.

The future research project aims to explore one or more of the prevention priorities identified in the planning project.

Moreover, the future project aims to embed the co-research model and explore its impact on ongoing and future health deterioration prevention research and development work.

The anticipated outcome of the planning and future projects is prevention work that appeals to a wider section of older people.