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According to Dr. Karin M. Ouchida and Dr. Mark S. Lachs (2015), “adults ages 65 and older see doctors on average twelve times per year, and nearly 80 percent see a primary clinician at least once per year.” Another barrier is that healthcare costs are increasing at an alarming rate, which affects older adults access to healthcare (Yamada, Chen, Murata, Hirai, Ojima, Kondo and Harris, 2015).

 

Other ageist factors older adults experience within healthcare are that some health-care workers have “negative attitudes towards older people or the ageing process, engage in patronizing behaviour, fail to consult older people about their preferences for care, and discourage or restrict access to otherwise-indicated medical interventions” (World Health Organization, 2015).

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