[Use of self-rating instruments with elderly hospital patients]

The usefulness of self-rating instruments for measuring the emotionality of elderly and/or physical ill individuals is discussed. Therefore, 99 inpatients of internal wards (mean age: 65) were examined with the German form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Laux et al., 1981). All the problems which arose when the test sheet was filled out were recorded and subsumed into one of the following categories: comprehension problems, problems with the answer categories, answer tendency, problems with layout. As expected, we were able to show that practical problems increase as patients become older. None of the patients over 80 years was able to complete the scale without considerable help in a standardized manner. We recommend to use structured interviews for assessing the emotional state of elderly patients.