ABSTRACT

There is an urgent need to understand the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemics on older people’s lives. However, conducting qualitative research is challenging, because of the shortage of guidelines and methodological research on how to recruit and interview participants during biological disasters, such as pandemics. This paper documents the procedures we adopted to recruit and interview 40 older people living in a rural area of Northern Italy that was subject to the first full lockdown in Europe. Despite the challenges arising when qualitatively researching the old age population in pandemic times, our study has shown that it is feasible to recruit and interview older people remotely. Specifically, community engagement and tailoring video-interviews according to older people’s needs and ICT skills are the key aspects to consider when designing these types of studies.

摘要

迫切需要了解 Covid-19 流行病对老年人生活的影响。然而，进行定性研究具有挑战性，因为缺乏关于如何在大流行等生物灾难期间招募和采访参与者的指南和方法研究。本文记录了我们为招募和采访居住在意大利北部农村地区的 40 名老年人所采用的程序，该地区是欧洲首次全面封锁。尽管在大流行时期对老年人口进行定性研究时遇到了挑战，但我们的研究表明，远程招募和采访老年人是可行的。具体来说，