Evaluating Materials

When you communicate about health with older adults and their caregivers

• Do your messages match the important characteristics of the specific group of older adults you want to reach? Think about age, literacy skills, cognitive and physical functioning, comfort with technology use, cultural and ethnic differences.
• Do you consider the complexity and novelty of the messages and the cognitive demands of the situation?
• Do you focus on communicating the main issues and helping older adults get the gist?
• Do your messages address common lived experiences and shared values among older adults?
• Do you use appropriate compensatory mechanisms such as reminders to aid memory or audio reinforcement of visual information?
• Do you provide clear recommendations and solutions for health issues specific to your older adult population?
• Do you collaborate with senior community organizations or local Area Agencies on Aging for feedback and recommendations?