Centre for Policy on Ageing



Using focus groups to explore older people's attitudes to end of life care
Author(s)	Jane Seymour, Gary Bellamy, Merryn Gott
Journal title	Ageing & Society, vol 22, part 4, July 2002
Pages	pp 517-526
Keywords	Terminal care ; Attitude ; Social ethics ; Qualitative Studies ; Sheffield.
Annotation	This paper reports on the methodological and ethical issues that were encountered when using focus groups to explore older people's knowledge, beliefs and risk perceptions about the use of innovative health technologies in end of life care. Older people drawn from community organisations in Sheffield, England, took part in discussions about the applications of 'life prolonging' and 'comfort care' technologies during serious illness and impending death. The paper offers a reflective account of the management of recruitment and informed consent, and of the issues that arose when facilitating group discussions of potentially distressing material. It concludes with a brief account of the steps that were taken to enhance the 'credibility' of the data. (KJ/RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020812213 A
Classmark	LV: DP: TQ: 3DP: 85C
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.