Engagement In Health Care From The Perspective Of Older Adults

Patient engagement is essential for improving health outcomes and lowering health care costs. The use of patient portals is becoming increasingly important for patient health care engagement. A convenience sample of 100 community-dwelling older adults completed a battery of surveys to explore the use of patient portals as an engagement tool. Criterion sampling was used to select a subset of 23 participants from the initial telephone survey to participate in one of four focus groups based on prior experience with a patient health portal (yes or no) and level of health literacy (low or high). Two core concepts and corresponding themes emerged: Patient Engagement Behaviors included the themes of managing health care, collaborating with providers, relying on family support, being proactive, advocating for health care, and seeking information. Patient-Provider Interactions included the themes of providers coordinate care, providers they can trust, two-way communication with providers, providers know them well, and providers give essential health information. Findings revealed a synergistic relationship among Patient Engagement Behaviors, Patient-Provider Interactions, and family support that can be strengthened in combination to promote the health care engagement capacity of older adults.