Needs assessment in the oldest old: application, psychometric examination and establishment of the adapted German version of the Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE)

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Steffi G. Riedel-Heller; Dr. Janine Stein
• Subject Area: Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine
• Term: from 2012 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 232174073

The current demographic and social developments in our society will lead to a significant increase of treatment and health care needs in the elderly population, particularly in the oldest old. The planning of health care and health care services for the older population requires a multidimensional, systematic, and comprehensive assessment of the needs of older people. The Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly (CANE) was developed to accurately and comprehensively measure the physical, psychological and environment-related treatment as well as health care needs of older people in order to identify their unmet needs. As the result of a preceding pilot project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), a comprehensively revised, improved and adapted German-language version of the CANE was developed. The aims of the present project proposal are the application and testing of this adapted German version of the CANE. For this purpose, a telephone survey in the representative elderly population (n = 1.000) as well as a face-to-face survey of relevant patient groups (n = 200, psychiatric and somatic patients) aged 75 years and older shall be realized in order to assess met and unmet needs. In addition to the patients´ perspectives, their relatives or healthcare professionals as well as general practitioners ought to be assessed. On this basis, the comprehensive description and analysis of met and unmet needs in the oldest old is aimed. Furthermore, the examination of the psychometric characteristics (reliability, validity) of the CANE will be carried out. Another aim of the study is the development of a handbook for the adapted German-language version of the CANE. The study results of the proposed project will substantially contribute to an effective and good-quality health and social care as well as to an appropriate allocation of health care resources in the elderly population.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants