This ethnography was performed to explore patterns and meanings of healthy life among aged women using senior centers.

The informants were 21 individuals aged 65 years and older at 2 community-based senior centers. Data were collected from iterative fieldwork through in-depth interviews and participant observations and analyzed using text analysis and taxonomic methods developed by Spradley. Field notes were used with follow-up interviews and dialogue between authors to enhance interpretation.

Patterns of healthy life among aged women using senior centers were categorized by age groups within the context of the four cultural elements of taking care of the body, relationality, temporality, and spatiality: active and passive control, maintenance of interdependence and individuality, expansion and maintenance of the daily routine, unity of peer relations and sustenance of family relations, spending time productively and tediously, and complementary and alternative space of the family relations.

The informants in this study demonstrated healthy life by maintaining and strengthening continuous relationships developed in the senior centers without being isolated from the family and society. Patterns of their healthy life differed across age groups within the socio-cultural context. Therefore, interventions should be tailored to address age groups and community needs.

This study was done to explore adaptation experience of living kidney donors after donation. Specific aims were to identify challenges donors face in the process of adaptation following surgery and how they interact with recipients and other people.

Grounded theory methodology was utilized. Participants were 13 living kidney donors at six months or more after donation. Data were collected by in-depth interviews with individual participants. Data were analyzed using constants comparative method with theoretical saturation.

A core category emerged as 'keeping the fences of my family in spite of vulnerability'. The adaptation process after donation was manifested in four phases: exploration, balance, maintenance, and acclimatization. Phenomenon was perception of vulnerability. Strategies to manage the vulnerability were assessing changes of body awareness, tailoring regimen to one's own body condition, coping with health problems, keeping restoration of health, and ruminating on the meaning of one's kidney donation. Consequences were reestablishing family well-being, realizing the values of one's kidney donation, and living with uncertainty.

Findings of the study indicate that there is a need for health professionals to understand the vulnerability of living kidney donors and help their family system maintain a healthy and productive life. The results of this study can be used to develop phase-specific, patient-centered, and tailored interventions for living kidney donors.