Conducting research interviews with elderly people by telephone

Area of Science:

• Nursing Research
• Gerontology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Post-discharge follow-up is crucial for elderly patients.
• Traditional data collection methods can be resource-intensive.
• Exploring efficient data collection techniques is vital in geriatric care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of telephone interviews for collecting research data from elderly patients after hospital discharge.
• To review existing literature on telephone interviewing with elderly populations.
• To share practical experiences and challenges of conducting telephone interviews in this demographic.

Main Methods:

• A literature review on telephone interviewing with elderly patients.
• Conducting over 500 telephone interviews with elderly individuals post-discharge.
• Utilizing in-person interviews for subject recruitment prior to telephone contact.

Main Results:

• Telephone interviews proved to be a cost-effective and useful method for obtaining follow-up research data.
• Challenges were noted with hearing-impaired and unwell participants.
• Successful implementation was strongly linked to prior in-person subject recruitment.

Conclusions:

• Telephone interviews are a viable and economical tool for geriatric nursing research follow-up.
• Careful planning, including pre-interview recruitment, is essential for overcoming participant-related challenges.
• This method offers a practical approach to gathering essential post-discharge data from elderly populations.