[The viewpoint of the elderly on the problems of aging]

Members of an university for the elderly conducted a survey among 730 elderly people in order to ascertain their living and housing conditions, their familiar and social relationship, their state of health, and how they envisaged their future should their independence become limited. This article describes the methodology of the study, the rich human and social experience gained by the researchers and it indicates the characteristics of the people surveyed, a high proportion of whom were very old and living alone and would thus be in a particularly precarious situation if their independence became limited owing to age or illness.