Gerontological research: use and application of focus groups

In gerontology, focus groups are designed to obtain information from a small group of older adults about their feelings, opinions, and perceptions about a given problem, experience, service, program, or phenomenon. Although focus groups have many uses, they are best suited for exploratory qualitative research when the researcher is interested in learning more about a specific phenomenon. Advantages to using focus groups as a qualitative data collection technique include effective use of time, money, and effort; the benefit of group synergy; the ability to gain immediate validation of information by others in the group; and the ability to ask for direct clarification and to probe for deeper levels of information from the participants. Drawbacks of the focus group technique might include the researcher's group process techniques; the inability to generalize the findings to the population of interest; the breadth of information possible in one group sitting; and the time-consuming process of data transcription.