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Elderly Patients Keep it Quiet New research reveals older patients that are unprepared for a trip to the doctor are often under-informed about their illnesses, medications. 
Elderly patients stricken with illness don’t always voice their concerns and symptoms to friends and family, which can lead to familial frustration and ever-worsening conditions. Worse still, a new study reveals that the elderly have trouble speaking up about their problems when they finally do visit the doctor. “Elderly patients should … have more of a say in not only treatment decisions but they should be supported during the whole consultation to make clear their needs and expectations about their health care,” said Raymond Wetzels, a general practitioner at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands. Wetzels’ review focused on 433 patients across three separate studies that incorporated face-to-face coaching sessions about how to prepare for and behave in a doctor visit, and written material such as booklets or a checklist to prioritize reasons for the visit. The results were mixed, with more than half of the patients, 54 percent, failing to identify specific issues to discuss before their visit to the doctor. Further, 80 percent did not bring a list of questions, problems or medications to the visit and asked no questions about their illness or tests or procedures. Perhaps most shocking is that 77 percent did nothing whatsoever to prepare for their visits. One technique, where a medical student helped patients identify treatment-related questions prior to the doctor’s visit, proved most successful: fourteen of 22 patients asked at least one question during their visit with the physician. Physicians list many causes for seniors’ lack of command over the medical process, including loss of core functions, including sight, sound and memory. While the communication deficit can be linked to hearing and visual impairment, fear is an even bigger factor said Ming Tai-Seale, an associate professor at Texas A&M Health Science Center, College Station, Texas. Tai-Seale, who recently wrote a separate review focusing on elderly patients and office visit time, said older patients “may be of the generation where they still see doctors as superior beings. They wouldn’t challenge their opinion. They may feel they are taking too much of the physician’s time.” While this seems to argue for increased education aimed at doctors, Wetzels said that doctors already get that training. He says the trend is toward patient-centered care where both “patients and doctors are responsible for patients’ health care.” Tai-Seals believes the real key might be for families to arm their elderly members with ample information. “[The elderly] May not be as information savvy as some in the younger generation.”
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