Exploring interval of need in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA): A proof of concept study

Willis, Rosalind, Channon, Amos, La Valle, Maria and Viana, Joe (2016) Exploring interval of need in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA): A proof of concept study. British Society of Gerontology Annual Conference, Stirling, United Kingdom.

Abstract

It is important to have a clear definition of older people’s support needs caused by illness or disability. Such definitions are useful because they allow the measurement of the prevalence of a problem, and also resource planning for support services. A common way to conceptualise need in the literature is Activities of Daily Living (ADL) scales (e.g. Bucks et al., 1996; Katz et al., 1963). These scales tend to measure either the presence or absence of a difficulty, or the degree of difficulty. However, they omit the dimension of time, i.e. how often help is required with a particular ADL. This frequency of help required is vital information for support services. The ‘Interval of Need’ concept (Isaacs & Neville, 1976) fulfils the time criterion by indicating the length of time between instances of help required, i.e. a short interval might indicate once a day, but a long interval might indicate once a week. The Interval of Need concept has not been widely used in the academic literature (with only a few exceptions, e.g. Jagger et al., 2011), but we argue that it should be exploited more. In this presentation we test the Interval of Need concept with the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing Wave 6, and compare it to traditional understandings of need. We make recommendations for researchers and practitioners on the measurement of need.

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Contributors

Author: Rosalind Willis

Author: Amos Channon

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