ArticleJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2012
Going it together: persistence of older adults' accompaniment to physician visits by a family companion.
Article in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Guiding principles for the care of older adults with multimorbidity: an approach for clinicians: American Geriatrics Society Expert Panel on the Care of Older Adults with Multimorbidity.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2012Guideline
- Within-Trial Cost-Effectiveness of an Adherence-Enhancing Educational Intervention for Glaucoma.American journal of ophthalmology · 2022Trial
- A tool to strengthen the older patient-companion partnership in primary care: results from a pilot study.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2014Trial
- Study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial of SONATA: A social network intervention for older adults with advanced cancer.Journal of geriatric oncology · 2026Article
- Doctor-Patient Communication and Sensory Disabilities among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Findings from NHATS.Research square · 2026Article
- Doctor-Patient Communication and Sensory Disabilities among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Findings from NHATS.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- A look at caregivers for community-living persons with dementia: Implications for the GUIDE model.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- What Motivates Physicians to Address Caregiver Needs? The Role of Experiential Similarity.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2023Article
- Randomized controlled trial of an education-based intervention to improve medication adherence: Design considerations in the medication adherence in glaucoma to improve care study.Clinical trials (London, England) · 2021Article
- Can volunteer medical visit companions support older adults in the United States?BMC geriatrics · 2021Article
- Accompaniment to healthcare visits: the impact of sensory impairment.BMC health services research · 2020Article
- Patient-centered communication and outcomes in heart failure.The American journal of managed care · 2020Article
- Article
- Caregiver Needs Assessment in Primary Care: Views of Clinicians, Staff, Patients, and Caregivers.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2020Article
- Non-spouse companions accompanying older adults to medical visits: a qualitative analysis.BMC geriatrics · 2019Article
- Racial/Ethnic Differences in Those Accompanying Medicare Patients to the Doctor: Insights from the 2013 Medicare Current Beneficiary's Survey.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2018Article
- The impact of genetic counselors' use of facilitative strategies on cognitive and emotional processing of genetic risk disclosure for Alzheimer's disease.Patient education and counseling · 2018Article
- Decision Support for Joint Replacement: Implications for Decisional Conflict and Willingness to Undergo Surgery.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2018Article
- Family presence and participation during medical visits of heart failure patients: An analysis of survey and audiotaped communication data.Patient education and counseling · 2017Article
- A National Profile of Family and Unpaid Caregivers Who Assist Older Adults With Health Care Activities.JAMA internal medicine · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesAlthough older adults are often accompanied to routine physician visits and commonly receive disability-related task assistance, the overlap and persistence of this help is not well understood. This study investigates whether older adults who are accompanied to routine physician visits (1) also receive task assistance and (2) continue to be accompanied at 12-months by the same family companion.
designObservational study.
settingNationally representative survey.
participantsCommunity-dwelling adults aged 65 and older who responded to the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) in 2006 (n = 11,582) and a subset (n = 7,510) who responded in 2005 and 2006. MEASUREMENTS: Accompaniment to physician visits by a family companion and receipt of task assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) or instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). Persistent accompaniment and consistent family companion involvement was ascertained from 2005 and 2006 survey responses.
resultsAmong community-dwelling older adults, 18.6% were accompanied to physician visits only, and 12.7% were accompanied to physician visits and received task assistance. Accompanied older adults who received task assistance were older, less educated, and had worse self-rated health than their counterparts who were accompanied only. Family companions who provided task assistance (vs those who did not) were more actively engaged in physician visit processes and more often identified as always present. Three-fourths (74.5%) of accompanied older adults were persistently accompanied to physician visits at 12 months, nearly always (87.9%) by the same family companion. Receipt of task assistance was strongly associated with persistent accompaniment (aOR = 2.52; 95% CI: 1.93-3.29).
conclusionsOlder adults' accompaniment to physician visits typically persists, most often by consistently involved family companions. Findings have implications for the patient-physician partnership and the patient-centered medical home.
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