Older adults commonly involve family (broadly defined) in their care. We examined communication behaviors of family companions during older adults' primary care visits, including whether these behaviors vary with respect to how older adults manage their health, preferences for involving family in medical decision-making, and ratings of companion helpfulness.
Analysis of audio-taped primary care visits of older patients who were accompanied by a family companion (n=30 dyads) and linked patient surveys.
Family companions predominantly facilitated doctor and patient information exchange. More than half of companion communication behaviors were directed at improving doctor understanding of the patient. Companions were more verbally active during visits of patients who delegated the management of their health to others than visits of patients who co-managed or self-managed their health. Companions were rated as more helpful by patients who preferred active involvement of family in medical decision-making.
Family companion participation and helpfulness in primary care communication varies by patients' preferences for involving family in medical decision-making and approach to manage their health.
Research to examine the effects of clarifying patient and family companion expectations for primary care visits could inform strategies to improve the patient-centeredness of medical communication.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 October 2016.
All research outputs
#31,219,024
of 34,400,738 outputs
Outputs from Patient Education & Counseling
#4,275
of 4,782 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#303,581
of 338,908 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Patient Education & Counseling
#39
of 44 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,400,738 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,782 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.6. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 338,908 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 44 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
