Exploring Communication between Health Care Professionals and Older Adults

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the communication problems that older adults may encounter when interacting with their health care professionals. In particular, we are interested in the types of communication problems older adults have experienced such as memory, comprehension, and sensory issues. A structured interview consisting of two parts was designed to gather this information. The first part focuses on the specific communication problems participants may have had. The second part of the study involves six scenarios in which a fictitious patient has a communication problem with a health care professional. The goal of the scenarios is to determine the types of strategies, if any, participants recommend using when faced with communication problems with their health care professional. The findings from this study will be used to identify and categorize problems and strategies to inform design solutions to remedy these communication problems.