‘Looking’ referred to the exploratory phase, in which
participants were asked to tell their stories about living with
asthma. ‘Thinking’ was stimulated when the interviewer
asked them to reflect on their story: ‘What is happening
here?’ and ‘Why are things as they are?’ The ‘acting’ phase
occurred when participants were asked to think about aspects
of their asthma self-management that they would like to
change or share with others. Most of the one-to-one
interviews lasted 1 hour, and all were tape-recorded and
transcribed verbatim.
Eighteen participants volunteered to join a PAR group.
Family and friends were also invited, and six partners
attended. Due to the large number of people participating,
two separate groups were convened. We have published
details of the PAR methodology previously (Koch & Kralik
2001, Koch et al. 2002) and therefore here we will only give
an overview of the approach.
During the PAR meetings, the facilitator (first author) gave
an overview of the study and assisted with setting ‘norms’ in
collaboration with the group. A document that contained a
preliminary analysis of interview data was presented to
participants at the first PAR group meeting. Discussion took
place around each of the themes and validation of findings was
noted. In an effort to extend group discussion, the ‘look, think
and act’ (Stringer 1999) framework was displayed on a slide
and this cyclic process explained to participants. The explanation
was as follows: ‘Let us look at what is going on in your
life, let usthink about this (reflect) and then let us consider what
can be done to improve things (act)’. This cyclic process
encouraged participants to investigate their problems and
issues systematically, formulate experiential accounts of their
situations, and devise plans to deal with the issues identified.
We held two PAR meetings with each of the two groups and
the intent was to develop collaboratively a model that would
enable self-management of asthma for older people. Participants
shared their stories about living with asthma, and were
encouraged to engage in discussion and dialogue, develop
mutually acceptable accounts that described their experiences,
and talk about ways they managed their condition. They were
encouraged to talk about their ‘self’-management and explore
what they could do to improve this, thus leading to individual
or group action. PAR meetings were transcribed concurrently
by a skilled research coordinator.
At the first PAR meeting with each group, we asked
participants to take home a questionnaire with two items:
‘What is asthma?’ and ‘What is self-management?’ We
received 14 replies and analysis of the questionnaire data
followed the procedure outlined below.
The three authors read the transcripts and analysed data
collaboratively. We analysed for self-management claims