The importance of building trust and tailoring interactions when meeting older adults’ health literacy needs

Abstract

Purpose: Health literacy is the ability to access, understand and use health information. This study qualitatively explored the views and experiences of older adults with varying health literacy levels who had attended a falls clinic on their overall experience of the falls clinic, access to the service and provider–patient interaction.

Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine older adults using a falls clinic in England. Health literacy was assessed using the REALM and NVS-UK. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and interrogated using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).

Results: Two superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: The importance of trust and relationship building to achieve effective communication with older adults; and the importance of tailoring education and healthcare to older adults’ individual health literacy needs and preferences.

Conclusions: The findings corroborate previous research emphasising the importance of face-to-face communication in responding to older adults’ individual health literacy needs. Building trust in the relationship and tailoring communication to older adults’ individual attributes and preferred learning styles is essential. Healthcare practitioners and managers should consider how service organisation and communication methods can enhance positive and effective relationships with patients. Improved training could support healthcare providers in meeting patients’ personal communication needs.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Charlotte Brooks: orcid.org/0000-0002-4461-1247

ORCID for Jo Adams: orcid.org/0000-0003-1765-7060

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