Key Themes	Illustrations
If you are more active, you will stay independent for longer.
Favored “stay independent”	“[Independence] is the last thing that people like to lose.” “Independence is keeping me out of an old-age home.” “It’s your independence you miss.”
Not wanting to rely on others	“We don’t want [caregivers]; we don’t [want] our wives holding our hands.” “I don’t want to be a liability on anybody.” “I don’t like relying on other people if I can get away with doing it myself.”
Living alone and maintaining daily tasks	“Independence is very important to me; the only thing I have done is lawns mowed, because I can’t manage them any longer, but I do everything else.”
Negative impact of loss of independence	“A jolly pain” “Punishment” “Cranky” “When I lose my independence [God] can take me; what’s the use of living.”
Concern about being “too” independent	“People become too independent and don’t take the help available.” “I think that you can be too independent too, because it doesn’t matter what anybody says to you—’oh, no; I can do that’.” “We’ve got to be independent when we live on our own, but you can take it too far.” “[Add to message] ‘but accept assistance if it’s necessary’.”
Losing one’s independence was inevitable; once lost, it’s not possible to regain	“but if that’s got to happen you can’t do anything about it” “there’ll be a time when we all have to accept help” “you can’t stay independent forever; I think people have got to accept that”
If you are more active, you will stay healthy for longer.
Health is a prerequisite for independence and fall prevention	“If you are healthy you can stay independent for longer.” “If you are healthy you can cover all the others.”
Ill health is inevitable	“It’s hard to stay healthy as you get older, because you don’t know what’s going to break down. I mean, I’m pretty healthy, but I don’t know what could happen there, and something will happen—it happens to everybody, doesn’t it?”
If you are more active, you will be less likely to fall.
Negative impact	“I don’t like [that] one.” “[This message] can be detrimental.”