title: Activating the knowledge-to-action cycle for geriatric care in India.
abstract: Despite a rapidly aging population, geriatrics--the branch of medicine that focuses on healthcare of the elderly--is relatively new in India, with many practicing physicians having little knowledge of the clinical and functional implications of aging. Negative attitudes and limited awareness, knowledge or acceptance of geriatrics as a legitimate discipline contribute to inaccessible and poor quality care for India's old. The aim of this paper is to argue that knowledge translation is a potentially effective tool for engaging Indian healthcare providers in the delivery of high quality geriatric care. The paper describes India's context, including demographics, challenges and current policies, summarizes evidence on provider behaviour change, and integrates the two in order to propose an action plan for promoting improvements in geriatric care.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Suite 425, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada. jenna.evans@utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Jenna M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Pretesh R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Kiran
authors.forename: Onil K
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Bhattacharyya
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D005853:Geriatrics; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D033181:Information Dissemination; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D058996:Quality Improvement