ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors illustrate how qualitative research methods can provide empirically-based information describing the health beliefs and health behaviors of rural older adults by presenting results from their research in rural North Carolina. They review of the qualitative research methods literature in gerontology, emphasizing the variety in data collection methods. The authors examine the results of the extant published qualitative rural aging research literature. They highlight the limited amount of qualitative rural aging research that has examined health beliefs and health behaviors. The authors present results from research conducted in collaboration with the North Carolina Rural Aging Program to illustrate how two qualitative research methods, focus group interviews, and in-depth personal interviews, can be used to study the health beliefs and behaviors of rural older adults. The data produced in qualitative research are text; that is, narrative statements in the form of transcribed interviews, field notes, or statements written by subjects, as well as photographs and other artifacts.
