Using Focus Groups to Identify Lifestyle and Health Issues in the Elderly

Abstract This article describes the use of focus groups with elders at an inner city senior citizens center. The findings were used to gain lifestyle information to guide future activities of a grant project and to form the basis for a health education needs assessment and programming for the seniors. Several predominant lifestyle themes were identified and fifteen health education needs were established. Focus groups were found to be an effective tool for collecting information from older adults and served to sensitize health professionals to many aspects of the elders' lives.