The development of a questionnaire to assess the attitudes of older people to end-of-life issues (AEOLI)

Objectives: To develop an end-of-life attitudes questionnaire for use in a large community-based sample of older people. Design: Nominal groups and standardization of questions. Participants: Eighteen older people, ten academics and five specialist palliative care health professionals were involved...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Catt, S. (Author), Blanchard, M. (Author), Addington-Hall, J. (Author), Zis, M. (Author), Blizard, R. (Author), King, M. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2005-07.
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Summary:Objectives: To develop an end-of-life attitudes questionnaire for use in a large community-based sample of older people. Design: Nominal groups and standardization of questions. Participants: Eighteen older people, ten academics and five specialist palliative care health professionals were involved in nominal groups. Thirty older people took part in initial pilot work and a further 50 were involved in reliability testing. Results: A 27-item attitudes of older people to end-of-life issues (AEOLI) questionnaire. Discussion: In modern times, death and dying predominantly occurs among older people and yet we know very little about older people's attitudes to end-of-life care. The AEOLI questionnaire can be used in large scale surveys to elicit attitudes on end-of life issues considered important by older people and health care professionals.