Methodological Issues in Surveying Older Persons Concerning Drug Use

Abstract

Despite beliefs that surveys involving older persons are less valid than those with other groups (due to memory loss, etc.), empirical verifications do not support this. Certain factors related to reduced validity must be considered (e.g., little education) and the confounding factors of cohort and time of measurement must be evaluated. Persons presumably suffering from dementia and institutional residents may be needlessly excluded. Methods suggested for improving validity include: sampling techniques, proxy respondents, administration and instrumentation, and interviewer variables. It is important to cross-validate data from surveys by using several concurrent methods. Instruments developed with younger subjects may be inappropriate or invalid with elders

Key Words:

• Elderly
• Surveys
• Drugs
• Research methods