Attitudes of general practitioners and practice nurses regarding older person health assessments.

Abstract

Health assessments (HAs) are available for community-dwelling older people to receive annually from general practitioners (GPs), but have low uptake. Little is known regarding the views of GPs and practice nurses (PNs) towards older person HAs and whether this might contribute to the low uptake. The objective of this study was to explore the attitudes of GPs and PNs towards older person HAs. Fifty-eight participant responses to an online questionnaire were analysed through descriptive statistics and content analysis. Most participants (77%) found older person HAs to be useful. Participants felt HAs identified health problems that may otherwise be missed (n=21). The main barriers to delivery of HAs were patient refusal (n=25) and insufficient practitioner time (n=19). The most requested change to HAs was increased patient education and public awareness regarding older person HAs (n=10). Health professionals felt increased patient education and public awareness, particularly to address patient misconceptions regarding older person HAs, may improve HA uptake.