Dear Arnat,

I think the first thing you have to do is familiarize yourself with the case at hand using different mechanisms like interacting with your respondents friendly, undertake several observations, discuss with experts working in the project, go through any records about your respondents, etc. If possible have tea or coffee with some of them These activities may help you understand how your potential respondents communicate and interact among themselves and with outsiders. At the same time it will help you to come up with some potential questions to be included in your checklist.

Good Luck!

Zerihun

Dear Michael Annear , Emma Corcoran, and Zerihun Nigussie,

Thank you for your valuable suggestions for working with elderly people. All of them are very useful for my research project.

Thanks again,

Arnat

Hi Arnat,

I have also worked in this situation and i had a good experience to  collect data in this situation. Be friendly, with them and narrate theme  of your study to them in the language they understand. 

They would be happy and give quality time for your study.

Good Luck

Rafique

Dear Muhammad Rafique,

Thank you for your good answer. It provides me a lot of ideas to work with them. Understand their context seems to be one of the most important issues. I hope I can do it better according to those suggestions from you guys.

Thanks,

Arnat

Try Photovoice

Ask yourself all the questions and have some aditional information from their families. Be patient all the time. Absorb the moment. You will be fine!

Maybe Grounded Theory procedures would help. 

All good answers! I would also say, while you will have your topic areas and questions and 'must have' data to collect, you also need to go with the flow of how the older adult is responding and in what order the information is relayed. You may find you have to do a bit of detective work when you read your transcript -- don't forget to get permission to do this -- to categorise and sort the information into your topic areas. It won't always be a linear process of moving from one question to the next. Sometimes one answer can cover a number of questions, some that you  haven't even asked yet!

Be friendly, but also respectful particularly if you are visiting them in their home -- not everyone you meet with have the same values or living circumstances as you. Don't jump straight away into researcher mode of getting all the forms filled in and the questions asked. Spend a couple of minutes in small talk to ease into the situation. Remember you only have a short time to make a good impression! So be yourself, and enjoy the opportunity to spend time with them and hear their story. I can assure you, you will hear some interesting things if you listen! Good luck.

Thank you for all good answer. Those are very useful for me.

Having undertaken several studies with older people and those with dementia - it has been good practice to use family members, carers and key social workers along to support any interviews. There is usually a deal of interpretation to undertake to arrive at an emerging theme.

In one study my reearchers used peers in the community (a group called older peoples voice) to help in data gathering

I have two studies available for download in researchgate you may wish to look at:

The Implementation of the Gold Standards Framework within Five Care Settings in Greater Manchester evaluation report 2008 executive summary.

on: 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235975859_The_Implementation_of_the_Gold_Standards_Framework_within_Five_Care_Settings_in_Greater_Manchester_evaluation_report_2008_executive_summary

Also: Knowsley Partnerships for Older People (POPPs) Final Evaluation Report

on: 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257990530_Knowsley_POPPs_Final_Evaluation_Report

Article The Implementation of the Gold Standards Framework within Fi...

Article Knowsley POPPs Final Evaluation Report

Allow them to use their own dialect.  Any language, in any country, has regional variations. It may be hard for them to find the right word in the dialect you're asking in, or that they think you prefer.  Have a respected person from that community with you if needed. Give them the time to come up with their answer. They may have difficulty finding the words for what they want to say, as you note, so let them find them, without making them feel rushed.  Patience is important.  Be sure to avoid the jargon words, and keep your questions simple.

As Robert alluded to, is it that they have difficulty forming a sentence to convey their thought (which is not necessarily linked to education, as uneducated people can be quite eloquent), or is there a cognitive impairment in your population. Maybe you could start your interaction, after a small-talk, rapport-establishing segment, with a brief cognitive screening. I don't know what is available in Thai, but that could be something to look for. That would help you identify where the difficulty may lie-- is it figuring out WHAT to say, or HOW to say it?

Dear Robert James McClelland and Renee Cordrey,

Your suggestions are very helpful and I will try my best.

Luckily, I can speak dialect with elderly. It helps me a lot.

Thank you Research Gate as well for creating this web board where I can learn form other researchers and experts. 

Arnat

I travel to Thailand quite frequently and I am a visitor to Ramkhamhaeng and NIDA universities. Let me know if this is useful?

Dear Robert krub,

Great to know that you quite often come to visit Thailand. I will read your article and in case I have a questions in any point, I will really appreciate if I can ask you krub :)

Always we have to start in building the rapport with our subject. At the same time it is so useful to consider the "principles of adult learners", and at the same time try to employ the most effective technique for your sample (e.g. motivational interview,,,).

I agree with Nidal that the starting point of the interview is very important. In particular, it often helps to begin by asking questions related to your topic that will be interesting to the participant and easy to answer, even if they are a bit further from your own research goals. The goal is to help the participant think about and talk about the general area of your own interests so that the later stages of the interview can develop in the direction that you want to go.

Also, having worked with older people with lower levels of education, I would say that this is quite different from interviewing people who have memory impairments due to dementia. For those with less education, being interviewed is often an unusual and even intimidating experience. Still, they may be very skilled at things like story telling, which can provide rich qualitative data.

My point of view here is supporting to your approach. When the participants have difficulty in expressing themselves or answer questioinnaire, then the qualitative approach is the best. It is not necessarly for the elderly to have high education level to be fit for research, as long as they are oriented and dont have dementia then there is no problem in recruiting them to your study.

Regards

I would advise, that you should relate with these low educated elderlies in their local dialect  to establish mutual understanding to get fundamental health information that would be useful for your research study. However, you're specially advised  to give orientation training with special focus to  groom this class of people, for this desirable research purpose.   Wishing you the very best!

Yes, my research was based on qualitative approach, but the point was that how to get answers from the elderly. What I found from my project were:

1) Dialect language made elderly people feel more comfortable and have more confidence.

2) Let them talk in their own way and listen carefully to their stories, but didn't forget your points.

3) Before going to collect data in any sites you have to make clear that you understand its contexts.

4) Health volunteers in the communities could be your good partners. Engagement was thus another option.

Lastly, asking my question here provided me a lot of useful information.

Thank you very much,

Arnat

Yes, in addition to speaking in local dialect, you're to engage those who're able to minimally read and write. To enable you gather health data information and afford them good training sessions to collect health data that are relevant for your research study.

Good discussion, Arnat!  Wishing you successful research study