When older patients don't learn. Adapting educational efforts to age.

A common frustration experienced by respiratory care practitioners is a seeming unwillingness or inability of some patients, particularly elderly ones, to comply with instructions or derive any apparent benefit from efforts to educate them concerning their disease. It is helpful to consider why these patients may not learn. Awareness of age-related biologic, physiologic, psychologic, and social changes should allow for modification of education attempts to maximize understanding and compliance.