Presentation
Doctor-older patient communication: Discussing lifestyles during primary-care visits
APHA
(2003)
Abstract
There is growing consensus that physician recommendations can be key to patient initiation of health promoting behaviors. Yet, other than the infrequency of such discussions, little is known about the extent of physician�s lifestyle counseling. This paper investigates the frequency of discussions about exercise, nutrition, and smoking during visits with older patients, and the impact of the length of the visit, reason for visit (acute vs. non-acute), physician supportiveness, and length of relationship on the likelihood that discussions will occur. Data from videotaped 446 visits between patients 65 and older and primary care providers in three health care settings was analyzed. The patient sample is two-thirds female and 25% minority. Exercise is mentioned in about 40% of the visits, nutrition in 48% and smoking in 14%. Although longer visits are more likely to include discussions of exercise and nutrition, over one-third of the visits containing these discussions are less than 10 minutes long. Exercise and nutrition are more likely to be discussed during non-acute visits, while smoking is not affected by the reason for visit. Supportive physicians are more likely to discuss exercise, nutrition, and smoking, and longer patient-physician relationships are associated with exercise conversation. Implications for practice include a need to educate and train physicians to address lifestyle issues with older patients during visits. It may also be beneficial to educate older patients about discussing lifestyles during medical visits.
Keywords
- Health Communications,
- Elderly
Disciplines
Publication Date
November, 2003
Citation Information
Marcia Ory, Paula Yuma, Dhaval Patel, Ming Tai-Seale, et al.. "Doctor-older patient communication: Discussing lifestyles during primary-care visits" APHA (2003) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/margo-hurwicz/30/