Chronic diseases become one of the most threatening health issues all over the globe. In particular, insufficient health literacy unreasonably impacts older adults in the United States. The challenge is complicated by the fact that the aging population, being a vulnerable group, needs adequate patient-oriented education. At this point, nurses are expected to engage the patients in highly-productive communication, explaining all the necessary points to improve their health outcomes and behaviors (Hessle, 2014). The current lack of various teaching strategies as well as the inability to properly promote health literacy in older adults causes the deterioration of their health statuses. Considering the topic of the proposed research, it is possible to come up with the following PICOT question:
- (P) – In elderly patients with chronic diseases
- (I) – Does patient education intervention
- (C) – Compare with only medication treatments
- (O) – Increase their health knowledge and improve their health statuses
- (T) – In a period of 6 months?
As a result of the mentioned teaching intervention, it is expected that the health literacy of older adults would be significantly increased, thus leading to their improved health outcomes. In particular, patients with chronic diseases would be aware of their health peculiarities and ways to either facilitate or reduce their manifestations (Garcia, Espinoza, Lichtenstein, & Hazuda, 2013). The importance of the issue in the context of poor outcomes or costs cannot be overestimated. In case the desired outcomes would not be achieved, the situation is likely to develop in an adverse way. Therefore, the key approach to accomplish the proposed goal is to be associated with age-related education and communication strategies (Souza et al., 2014). More importantly, these strategies are to be clearly planned and adapted to the individual needs and concerns of a certain patient.
The search of the literature for evidence was conducted according to the guidelines of evidence-based research. Such databases as ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source, PubMed, Medline, CINAHL, and so on were searched. In order to ensure the appropriateness of search, the literature that was published less than five years old was selected. The table presented below outlines the key appraisal points. The article by Garcia et al. (2013) named “Health literacy associations between Hispanic elderly patients and their caregivers” refers to the first study while “Functional health literacy and glycaemic control in older adults with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study” by Souza et al. (2014) is the second one.
Table 1. Evaluation Table.
PICOT question organizer
Search Tracker
Table 2. Search Tracker.
References
Garcia, C. H., Espinoza, S. E., Lichtenstein, M., & Hazuda, H. P. (2013). Health literacy associations between Hispanic elderly patients and their caregivers. Journal of Health Communication, 18(1), 256-272.
Hessle, S. (2014). Human rights and social equality: Challenges for social work. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Souza, J. G., Apolinario, D., Magaldi, R. M., Busse, A. L., Campora, F., & Jacob-Filho, W. (2014). Functional health literacy and glycaemic control in older adults with type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 4(2), 1-8.