Factors influencing Communication for Older Adults in Residential and Community Aged Care: A Scoping Review

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Manchha, Asmita V
Burton, Bridget
Siyambalapitiya, Samantha
Wood, Joanne M
Hickson, Louise
Fetherstonhaugh, Deirdre
King, Michelle
Wallace, Sarah J
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2025
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Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Older adults often experience communication changes due to ageing and an increased prevalence of conditions affecting speech, language, cognition, and sensory functions. While individual health conditions and contextual factors (e.g., personal and environmental) are known to influence communication, limited research has examined how these factors interact. Our scoping review summarizes how health conditions, impairments, and contextual factors can interact to influence communication in residential and community aged care settings. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Peer-reviewed articles published 2003-2023 were identified through searches of PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, and ProQuest. Using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as a framework, we extracted information about health conditions, impairments to body structures and functions, and personal and environmental factors reported to influence communication. Data were synthesised using thematic analysis. RESULTS: From 75 articles, we identified combinations of health conditions (e.g., dementia), impairments to body functions and structures (e.g., hearing impairment, personal (e.g., language, culture, gender) and environmental factors (e.g., relationships, health services, products/technology), reported to impact communication for older adults in aged care environments. Language and culture, and support and relationships, were both key facilitators and barriers to communication. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Older adults may experience complex and diverse communication support needs that result from multiple intersecting factors. Research to date has focused on communication in residential aged care, with few studies exploring community aged care services. Our findings will inform the development of resources for identifying and supporting communication needs of older adults who receive aged care services.

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Gerontologist

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© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Gerontological Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

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This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advance online version.

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Manchha, AV; Burton, B; Siyambalapitiya, S; Wood, JM; Hickson, L; Fetherstonhaugh, D; King, M; Wallace, SJ, Factors influencing Communication for Older Adults in Residential and Community Aged Care: A Scoping Review, Gerontologist, 2025, pp. gnaf140

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