Balancing Loss of Physical Function in Older Adults’ Everyday Lives with Multimorbidity - a qualitative study

Background Older adults living with multimorbidity often experience progressive loss of physical function, which affects autonomy, identity, and everyday participation. Despite increasing attention to multimorbidity, little is known about how older adults themselves experience functional decline following hospitalisation, and how person‑centred interventions may support them. This study explores these lived experiences and examines whether a personalised exercise therapy and self‑management programme helped participants live more active lives. Method We conducted individual semi‑structured interviews with 20 older adults with multimorbidity enrolled in a Danish personalised exercise and self‑management intervention. A phenomenological-hermeneutic framework inspired by Ricoeur guided data collection and analysis. Interpretation followed three analytic levels: naïve reading, structural analysis, and critical interpretation. Reporting adhered to COREQ. Results Four themes characterised participants’ experiences: 1) Balancing everyday life - independence and the need for help, reflected tensions between autonomy and increased reliance on relatives, often disrupting relational roles, 2) Adapting to a new everyday life - maintaining autonomy, involved creative workarounds and temporal adjustments that enabled participants to maintain routines and coherence despite functional loss, 3) Uncertainties in everyday life - fear of falling, symptom unpredictability, and reduced social participation, contributing to withdrawal and insecurity, and 4) A sense of community among the (Anonymised for Review) intervention participants - fostered motivation, belonging, and emotional support, reducing isolation and normalising functional limitations. Conclusion Loss of physical function among older adults with multimorbidity seems to constitute an emotionally and existentially challenging process shaped by bodily, relational, and contextual constraints. The personalised exercise and self‑management intervention supported participants by enhancing social connectedness, fostering agency, and helping them reorient everyday practices. Findings underscore the need for holistic, person‑centred care models that integrate physical rehabilitation with emotional, relational, and existential dimensions of ageing with multimorbidity.