In pursuit of quality: Issues for cross-national survey research

Harkness, Janet

doi:10.1080/136455799295096

Cited by 59 publications

(46 citation statements)

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“…In conclusion, we believe that major challenges related to European cross-national research can be handled successfully, although-as shown here-investments are considerable and compromises at the level of design and data quality are necessary (Harkness 1999;Lynn 2003). Both research consortiums and funding bodies planning for this kind of research need to be aware of the investments necessary to reach sufficient quality in cross-national projects (Kohn 1987;Harkness 1999, Lynn 2003.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Both research consortiums and funding bodies planning for this kind of research need to be aware of the investments necessary to reach sufficient quality in cross-national projects (Kohn 1987;Harkness 1999, Lynn 2003. Challenges such as those treated in this contribution ought to be informative for European gerontology research at large.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, there were different understandings of privacy and different degrees of fear for crime restricting persons' willingness to participate. Although these issues apply to many cross-national projects, as described, for example, by Harkness (1999) and Lynn (2003), it should be noted that in research on housing and health it is imperative to collect data at home visits. That is, the ENABLE-AGE Project required quite intensive, systematic observation of the housing environment as well as extensive observations and interviews of the person.…”

Section: Sampling Design Of the Enable-age Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As an implication of such differences the identification of environmental barriers in housing refers to tentatively diverse norms, which also provides challenges to the cross-national ecological validity of assessment instruments. To achieve good instrument equivalence (Harkness 1999;Singh 1995) it was necessary to perform a cross-national comparison of housing norms and guidelines related to the kind of assessment methodology that we intended to use in the ENABLE-AGE Survey Study; this was carried out in the first phase of the ENABLE-AGE Update Review. As illustrated in Table 3, comparing current legislation in the five countries showed a substantial diversity of measures and other criteria for environmental barriers.…”

Section: Sampling Design Of the Enable-age Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As illustrated in Table 3, comparing current legislation in the five countries showed a substantial diversity of measures and other criteria for environmental barriers. From a methodological point of view this kind of cross-national variation was a great challenge (Harkness 1999) that had to be dealt with as the ENABLE-AGE Survey Study instrumentation and data collector training developed.…”

Section: Sampling Design Of the Enable-age Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges of cross-national housing research with older persons: lessons from the ENABLE-AGE project

Iwarsson

Wahl²,

Nygren

2004

Eur J Ageing

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Although it is generally acknowledged that housing is a major issue regarding health in old and very old age, most empirical research still tends to treat the role of the housing environment in a rather superficial manner. The cross-national project Enabling Autonomy, Participation, and Well-Being in Old Age: The Home Environment as a Determinant for Healthy Ageing (ENABLE-AGE) seeks to make a substantial contribution to this shortcoming. The main objective of the project is to examine subjective and objective aspects of housing and their impact on health in very old age, while health is understood mainly in terms of autonomy, participation and well-being. The project involves five European Union member countries, i.e. Sweden (coordinating unit), Germany, the United Kingdom, Latvia and Hungary. The total sample includes 1,918 older adults in the age range of 75-89 years and living in single households. We provide a systematic analysis of major challenges coming with cross-national research in the housing and ageing domain based on the experience of the ENABLE-AGE Project. Treated are: challenges related to sampling and data collection procedures, challenges related to inclusion and exclusion criteria based on housing characteristics, challenges related to differences in housing legislation, norms, and guidelines, challenges related different availability of professional expertise for person-environment assessments, challenges related to valid and reliable person-environment assessments, and challenges related to the interpretation of housing-related findings.

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