title: Response time and health care learning of elderly patients.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine if elderly patients perform better in health care learning when provided slower or self-paced response conditions. The sample consisted of 105 institutionalized elderly people randomly assigned to three response groups: fast-paced, slow-paced, and self-paced. After nutrition instruction, learning performances of each of the three groups were measured. Learning performances under the fast- and slow-paced conditions did not differ; learning performances under the self-paced condition was superior to the two experimenter-paced conditions. Findings of this study document that a self-paced response condition is advantageous for elderly patients.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D013997:Time Factors