Abstract
Health-related proactivity in older adults may significantly increase medication handling, adherence and patient safety. Deficiencies in training in critical characteristics and diversity of older patients may lead to medical errors in diagnosis and drug administration. This study investigated the profiles of health proactivity in older adults and the factors differentiating them, like sociodemographic factors, health status, visit characteristics, and patients’ visit-related expectations, actual experiences, and satisfaction with the visit. Before and after visits, 3391 patients aged 65–95 filled in two sets of questionnaires, that allowed to measure aforementioned factors. Three distinct proactivity profiles emerged from a cluster analysis: high (43%), medium (25%), and low proactivity (32%). Highly proactive patients had the highest expectations, but their visits provided better opportunities to meet them than in other groups. Higher proactivity was related to a longer attendance time, frequent contact with and easier access to the doctor, or a longer time spent with a patient. The findings highlight the need to detect and respond to patients’ expectations regarding psychosocial aspects of care, as well as to improve organizational aspects of care, in order to enhance health proactivity in older adults. The resulting good practice recommendations may significantly improve healthcare workers’ effectiveness in both primary and secondary care.
Highlights
Academic Editor: Piotr MerksDemographic changes, the prevalence of chronic health conditions, and older adults’increasing use of health services [1] generate considerable challenges for healthcare systems.Research has recognized patient activation (PA), encouraging patients to participate in their own care, as a way to improve individual and population health and reduce costs [2].Higher PA produces self-management [3,4], health-related behaviours [5,6], the use of screening services and preventive behaviours [5,7–10], and a reduction of healthcare-related costs [5,11]
The sample size we investigated was derived from the number of doctors participating in the project [19]
The inclusion criteria were age 65+, having an appointment on the given day with a GP recruited for the project (50% of invited GPs agreed to participate), the ability to fill in questionnaires independently, and consent to participate
Summary
Academic Editor: Piotr MerksDemographic changes, the prevalence of chronic health conditions, and older adults’increasing use of health services [1] generate considerable challenges for healthcare systems.Research has recognized patient activation (PA), encouraging patients to participate in their own care, as a way to improve individual and population health and reduce costs [2].Higher PA produces self-management [3,4], health-related behaviours [5,6], the use of screening services and preventive behaviours [5,7–10], and a reduction of healthcare-related costs [5,11]. Health-related proactivity in older adults may significantly increase medication handling, adherence, and patient safety in everyday clinical practice [12]. PA refers to patients’ knowledge, skills, and confidence in managing their own health and care [12,14]. Studies measure it unidimensionally and categorize it on four levels from passive to proactive [15]. We used the multicomponent concept of attitudes towards treatment and health (ATH). It encompasses cognitive, emotional, and motivational–behavioural dimensions. As the PA concept includes patients’ confidence, the dimension of Received: 30 December 2021
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