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Using focus groups to explore older people's attitudes to end of life care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2002

JANE SEYMOUR ,
GARY BELLAMY ,
MERRYN GOTT ,
SAM H. AHMEDZAI  and
DAVID CLARK
JANE SEYMOUR
Affiliation:
Sheffield Palliative Care Studies Group, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
GARY BELLAMY
Affiliation:
Sheffield Palliative Care Studies Group, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
MERRYN GOTT
Affiliation:
Sheffield Institute for Studies on Ageing, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
SAM H. AHMEDZAI
Affiliation:
Sheffield Palliative Care Studies Group, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
DAVID CLARK
Affiliation:
Sheffield Palliative Care Studies Group, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
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Abstract

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 application 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.

Keywords

focus groupsqualitative researchmethodologyend-of-life careattitudesresearch ethics
Type
Methods Forum
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , July 2002 , pp. 517 - 526
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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