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

Abstract

To develop an end-of-life attitudes questionnaire for use in a large community-based sample of older people. Nominal groups and standardization of questions. 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. A 27-item attitudes of older people to end-of-life issues (AEOLI) questionnaire. 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.