Elderly patients’ heart-related conditions: Disclosing health information differs by target

Abstract

Americans are living longer, and many are managing at least one chronic illness. Having people with whom to disclose health information is a salient component of managing a chronic health condition, such as heart disease. The purpose of this study is to explore differences in elderly patients’ health disclosures by target (i.e. disclosing to a partner vs. another person). Elderly patients (>age 60) with a diagnosed heart-related condition (n = 273) completed a survey regarding sharing information about their health condition. Results indicated significant differences between the two groups in perceived support; breadth, depth, and frequency of disclosures; and disclosure of psychological/emotional symptoms, physical symptoms, and talk about heart-healthy behaviors. No significant differences were found between the two groups for relationship quality and efficacy. Patients who reported sharing information with a partner reported significantly more health information disclosures compared to patients who reported sharing information with another person.

Keywords:

• elderly
• chronic health conditions
• disclosure
• health information management

Notes

1. We used the World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of older adult to mean people ≥ age 60 (http://www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/ageingdefnolder/en/).

2. Hereafter, the inclusive term “partner” will refer to both spouses and partners in committed romantic relationships.

3. Patients completed surveys in relation to another person including a daughter (n = 36), son (n = 20), friend (n = 10), and other (n = 14). One-way within-subjects ANOVAs were conducted on all study variables to examine differences by relationship category. Results for relationship quality indicated a significant main effect, F(3, 72) = 4.09, p < .01, η2 = 0.78. Pairwise comparisons were conducted to assess significant mean differences among the pairs. A significant difference was found in relationship quality for patients and their sons and daughters compared to friends. That is, patients reported better relationship quality with both daughters (M = 4.45, SD = .54) and sons (M = 4.57, SD = .45) compared to friends (M = 4.04, SD = .60). Results for all other study variables were not significant.

4. We also ran all hypotheses for “older Americans” ≥age 65 (Agingstats.gov) to compare differences in the WHO’s definition of older adults as ≥age 60. Findings indicated that greater than half of the hypotheses were the same. For example, independent-samples t-test results for the older group were similar for Hypotheses 1, 3, 7, 8, and 9. However, t-test results for the older group differed for Hypotheses 2, 4, 5, and 6. For Hypothesis 2, Levene’s test indicated unequal variances; thus, we report the adjusted test (not supported), t(127.56) = 1.25, p > .63, such that patients who reported sharing information with a partner did not report significantly higher perceived support (n = 153; M = 4.27, SD = .67) compared to patients who reported sharing information with another person (n = 77; M = 4.16, SD = .83). Hypothesis 4 was not supported, t(230) = 1.10, p > .27, such that patients who reported sharing information with a partner did not report significantly more disclosure breadth (n = 185; M = 3.62, SD = .87) than did patients who reported sharing information with another person (n = 82; M = 3.42, SD = .84). Hypothesis 5 was not supported, t(232) = .91, p > .36, such that patients who reported sharing information with a partner did not report more disclosure depth (n = 157; M = 3.75, SD = .82) than did patients who reported sharing information with another person (n = 77; M = 3.64, SD = .87). Finally, Hypothesis 6 was not supported, t(223) = 1.16, p > .24, such that patients who reported sharing information with a partner did not report more disclosure frequency (n = 151; M = 3.06, SD = .89) than did patients who reported sharing information with another person (n = 74; M = 2.91, SD = .89).