The importance of building trust and tailoring interactions when meeting older adults' health literacy needs.

AbstractPurpose: Health literacy is the ability to access, understand and use health information. This study qualitatively explored the views and experiences of older adults with varying health literacy levels who had attended a falls clinic on their overall experience of the falls clinic, access to the service and provider–patient interaction.Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine older adults using a falls clinic in England. Health literacy was assessed using the REALM and NVS-UK. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and interrogated using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).Results: Two superordinate themes emerged from the analysis: The importance of trust and relationship building to achieve effective communication with older adults; and the importance of tailoring education and healthcare to older adults’ individual health literacy needs and preferences.Conclusions: The findings corroborate previous research emphasising the importance of fa...