ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1615088
This article is part of the Research TopicPatient-Centered Care: Strengthening Trust and Communication in Healthcare RelationshipsView all 16 articles
The Social Ecological Model of Interpersonal Health Communication among Rural older residents: A Consensual Qualitative Study
Provisionally accepted
Weijuan Kong1
Cailing Yang2Xinjin Li2Yanhuan Ning2*Jing Shi2Lingna Liu2Haiyan Liu3Yahong Guo1
Meiman Li1- 1General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China
- 2School of Nursing, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China
- 3Wuzhong People’s Hospital, Wuzhong, China
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Objectives: To explore the ecology of interpersonal health communication behavior among older residents in rural areas of western China.: Adopted semi-structured interviews with 15 older residents and 15 family doctors in rural areas of five prefecture level cities in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. Used the Consensual Qualitative Research method for data analysis. Based on the ecological map drawn, understand how the interpersonal health communication behavior of older residents is carried and what factors affect it in rural area. Results: According to the Ecological Systems Theory, we identified following themes: Microsystem (Weak recognition of health knowledge needs, Informal communication: mutual communication between relatives and friends and formal communication: one-way communication of family doctors.); Mesosystem (Multi scenario and Multi channels); Exosystem (Medical environment and Family doctors' workload) Macrosystem (National policies, Regional characteristics and Living environment). Conclusions: In summary, the health communication mode of older residents in rural areas is different from other populations, with face-to-face communication based on family doctors being the dominant mode and influenced by multiple levels of factors.Therefore, it is necessary to establish systematic plans at the policy, organizational, and other levels, especially in the training of family doctors, so that they can carry out more extensive and deeper professional interpersonal health communication, enhance 2 the health literacy of the older, and maintain their health level.
Keywords: older people, Rural area, Interpersonal health communication, family doctors, consensual qualitative research
Received: 20 Apr 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kong, Yang, Li, Ning, Shi, Liu, Liu, Guo and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanhuan Ning, School of Nursing, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, 750004, Ningxia, China
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