Objective. To elucidate the extent to which elderly people with cognitive impairment are able to answer questions about their quality of life. Design and setting. 308 elderly residents were interviewed within 2 weeks of admission to one of 30 residential or nursing homes in north-west England, Measures. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Lancashire Quality of Life Profile (Residential) (LQOLP(R)), the Crichton Royal Behaviour Rating Scale (CRBRS) and the HONOS-65 +. Results. Of the 308 subjects, LQOLP(R) interviews were attempted with 213 who scored 10 or over on the MMSE. Of the 213, 77.5% were found to be 'interviewable', ie able to answer the majority of questions in the LQOLP(R) and in doing so to give answers in which the interviewer had confidence. Of the seven cognitive domains measured by the MMSE, visual construction and registration were not significantly associated with interviewability. While orientation to time and recall were significantly associated with interviewability, many interviewable respondents had poor scores in these domains. No respondents were interviewable who scored less than 2 (out of 5) for orientation to place or less than 3 (out of 8) for language or less than 2 (out of 5) for attention. Conclusions. A high proportion of elderly people can answer questions about their quality of life, even in the presence of significant cognitive deficits. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
