Background and Objectives

The representative study NRW80+ which has been successfully conducted in 2017/2018 provided a comprehensive portrayal of the living conditions of very old people in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). First results on various areas of quality of life such as health, financial situation, everyday life, values, attitudes, subjective well-being and social relationships were received with interest in the media. In order to understand how resources and quality of life develop in very old age, the State’s Ministry of Culture and Science is funding a follow-up study for another three years.

Methods

The second phase of NRW80+ will be carried out as a repeat survey (panel) including a refreshment sample. Again, a total of 1,800 people aged 80 and older will be interviewed.

Participants of the first survey in 2017/2018 who were willing to take part in another survey will be interviewed a second time. This allows for describing and explaining changes in the quality of life in old age for multiple respondents. For example, it can be used to investigate how functional, mental and physical health develops or how everyday life is restructured after being widowed or moving to a retirement home. Additionally, new participants are contacted for an initial survey (refreshment sample), which will ensure continued representative results and which can be used to investigate differences between former and upcoming cohorts of very old people.

As in the first survey, the follow-up survey also addresses residents of retirement and nursing homes and includes persons with serious health impairments who can no longer take part in the survey themselves. The latter, with their consent, are taken into account for the survey through interviews with persons close to them (proxy interviews).

The study’s concept and personnel reach across disciplines (e.g. psychology, sociology, medicine, gerontology) and will network knowledge to look at quality of life in old age from different perspectives. The follow-up study is based on the challenges and potentials (CHAPO) model of quality of life in very old age, which was developed in an interdisciplinary way during the first funding phase.