Ageism In Health Care, More Common Than You Think. Bias, Discrimination Harm People: NPR [View all]

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- Ageism in health care is more common than you might think, and it can harm people. NPR, March 7, 2024. - Ed.

A recent study found that older people spend an average of 21 days a year on medical appointments. Kathleen Hayes of Chicago can believe it. She has spent a lot of time lately taking her parents, both in their 80s, to doctor's appointments. Her dad has Parkinson's, and her mom has had a difficult recovery from a bad bout of Covid-19. Hayes has noticed some health care workers talk to her parents at top volume, to the point, she says, "that my father said to one, 'I'm not deaf, you don't have to yell.'"

Also, while some doctors and nurses address her parents directly, others keep looking at Hayes herself. "Their gaze is on me so long that it starts to feel like we're talking around my parents," says Hayes, who lives a few hours from her parents. "I've had to emphasize, 'I don't want to speak for my mother. Please ask my mother that question.'" Researchers and geriatricians say that instances like these constitute ageism - discrimination based on a person's age - and it is surprisingly common in health care settings.

It can lead to both overtreatment and undertreatment of older adults, says Dr. Louise Aronson, geriatrician & professor of geriatrics.

"We all see older people differently. Ageism is a cross-cultural reality," she says. Ageism creeps in, even when the intent is benign, says Aronson, who wrote the book, "Elderhood. "We all start young, and you think of yourself as young, but older people from the very beginning are other." That tendency to see older adults as "other" doesn't just result in loud greetings, or being called "honey" while having your blood pressure taken, both of which can dent a person's morale.

Aronson says assumptions that older people are one big, frail, homogenous group can cause more serious issues. Such as when a patient doesn't receive the care they need because the doctor is seeing a number, rather than an individual. She says the problem is most doctors receive little education on older bodies and minds. Aronson adds that overtreatment comes in when well-meaning physicians pile on medications and procedures. Older patients can suffer unnecessarily...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/07/1236371376/bias-ageism-older-adults-geriatrics