An Evaluation of Older Volunteers as Telephone Interviewers

Abstract

Evaluation is presented of the effectiveness of 67 older volunteer interviewers who were recruited and trained to conduct telephone interviews of 1,125 older adults randomly selected for a needs assessment survey. The older volunteers had a cooper ation rate of over 81 percent. Discussion of the recruitment, training and problems encountered in using volunteer interviewers. Both the research project and the volunteer experience were successful.