RSS Feeds
Conducting Clinical Research in Geriatric Populations
- ANNE WILDER ZIMMER, M.S.;
- EVAN CALKINS, M.D.;
- EVAN HADLEY, M.D.;
- ADRIAN M. OSTFELD, M.D.;
- JANET M. KAYE, Ph.D.; and
- DONALD KAYE, M.D.
Abstract
Clinical research on geriatric populations requires adaptation of traditional methodologies, modification of expectations, and the development of new procedures. Some aspects of research methodology are unique to studies of geriatric populations. Experience in this relatively new area of geriatric research indicates that new partnerships between researchers and long-term care providers are needed. These new relationships require an understanding of the needs of geriatric populations and of the differences between providers of long-term care and of acute-care. Researchers must consider heterogeneity of the population, the probability of multiple diagnoses and treatments, subject attrition, and the possibility of invalid data. Such considerations require extra staff, more time, and increased funding as well as new thinking about study design and protocol implementation.
Article and Author Information
-
▸From the National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland; State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo. New York; Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; and Medical College of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
-
This article is based on comments delivered at a symposium sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, held in May 1984 at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, Denver, Colorado.
-
▸Requests for reprints should be addressed to Anne Wilder Zimmer, M.S.; National Institute on Aging, Building 31, Room 5C08, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike; Bethesda, MD 20205.
- © 1985 American College of Physicians
