Universität zu Köln

Brijoux, Thomas (2023). A closer look on dementia, elder abuse and multimorbidity in representative samples of the oldest old. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

Background: Due to the growing number of old aged persons in Germany and other countries the question arises how old aged persons can be described representatively in surveys. In this work old aged people are defined as persons above and including the age of 80 years. Old age describes a population that, due to limited health, a higher prevalence rates of dementia and a substantial part of the population living in nursing homes, is not only hard to survey. Additionally, constructs that are difficult to measure such as elder abuse become of greater importance when other resources diminish which is more common in old age. A theoretical framework that was formed to improve survey quality and enables discussions about possible survey errors is the Total Survey Error framework. Objective: Using the Total Survey Error framework it is examined how the constructs of elder abuse, dementia and multimorbidity can be assessed in representative samples of the old age. Results: Regarding representativity the presented papers show, that the inclusion of the nursing home population, people with dementia and proxy informants enhances the representativity of the survey and reduce non-response bias. On the other hand the inclusion of these hard to survey groups can lead to higher measurements errors. Measurement invariance is not established between proxy and self-reports in reports of elder abuse leading to an exclusion of proxy interviews in measurements of elder abuse. By reweighting the resulting non-response bias is reduced. Discussion: Inclusion of hard to survey groups can increase measurement errors while their exclusion increases sampling, frame and non-response errors. Presented methods that moderate these kinds of errors are reweighting the survey and separate analyses and presentation of subpopulations of the survey. The latter can allow to optimize measurements in subpopulations but may not yield a common estimator for the whole population.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Brijoux, Thomas tbrijoux@gmail.com UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-715976
Date:	16 August 2023
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Human Sciences
Divisions:	CERES - Cologne Center for Ethics, Rights, Economics, and Social Sciences of Health
Subjects:	Social sciences
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Total Survey Error English Representativity English Oldest Old English Dementia English Elder Abuse English Multimorbidity English
Date of oral exam:	16 August 2023
Referee:	Name Academic Title Zank, Susanne Professor Doktor Pfaff, Holger Professor Doktor
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/71597