Community Assessment of Senior Health Using a Telephone Survey and Supplementary Methods

Abstract

Because of the dramatic growth in the senior population, a community's assessment of the health needs of its older adults has become increasingly important. Telephone surveys have been routinely used to assess a variety of senior issues. Identified limitations of telephone surveys, however, suggest the importance of using supplementary methods. This article reports the findings of an assessment of health issues of seniors in a community with a rapidly increasing population of seniors. The core assessment tool was a telephone survey of a randomly selected sample of community-residing seniors. The two supplementary methods were a survey of those who provide regular care for seniors and focus groups of minority and low-income seniors. These three methods provided valuable information individually and collectively. These findings support the assertion made by the authors that supplementary evaluation of especially informative subgroups is valuable for a comprehensive characterization of the health of community-residing seniors.