Improving intergenerational health care communication

The relationship between health care providers and their older adult patients may suffer from miscommunication problems stemming from agist stereotyping. Stereotypes of older adults by younger adults may be revealed through patronizing speech--or elder-speak, which is the overaccommodation of speech interaction. Over- and underaccommodation strategies based on these stereotypes are often used by young health care providers when communicating with older adults. As the population ages and the demand for health care services increases, health care providers must improve their communicative effectiveness with their older patients. Attention to the individual needs of health care consumers, cognizance of age or role stereotyping, and proper training of health care providers would increase communicative effectiveness and enhance the patient-provider relationship.