Welfare and level of living among the very frail elderly, 2000

This dataset is from the study "Welfare and level of living among the very frail elderly".

The data are collected through questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. The study deals with service receivers over 70 years of age from 16 municipalities. The elderly people in the sample live either in nursing homes, retirement homes, houses which are adapted or in their own homes. The aim of the study is to give a comprehensive account of the information gathered about this group's living conditions and welfare. Furthermore the study has three main goals:

1. To describe living conditions and welfare among elderly people who are very depedent on being helped. The study gives a simple description of who the most frail service users are, what kind of help and services they receive and what needs they have and how they are.
2. To study the connections between boform and living conditions/welfare among very help-dependent elderly people receiving services.
3. To find relevant and useful indicators of living conditions and welfare for very help-dependent elderly people receiving services.

In the file information provided by the elderly people themselves is indicated with "2" in the end of the variable name. Variables with names without a number in the end contain information provided by each user's primary nurse/care giver.

Two types of questionnaires were developed. One to each user's primary nurse/care giver. One to the elderly person him/her-self.
Only the elderly who were able to give their consent were interviewed. Those interviewed:
- in nursing homes 37,7 %
- in retirement homes 66,7%
- in adapted houses/housing 66,0%
- among elderly living at home 58,6%

Somewhat different versions of the questionnaires were developed for those living in retirement homes, adapted houses and at home respectively - all in all 2x3 questionnaires. Most of the questions were identical, but some questions are only posed to those living in retirement homes, for instance.

Researcher Britt Slagsvold at Norwegian Social Research (NOVA) was the leader of the project and Marit Lauvli project co-worker until autumn 1998. The study was financed by the Research Council of Norway with funds from the Mininstry of Social Affairs and Health.