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Facts on Law and Ageing Quiz: older people's knowledge of their legal rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2008

ISRAEL DORON  and
PERLA WERNER
ISRAEL DORON*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, Department of Gerontology, Haifa University, Israel.
PERLA WERNER
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, Department of Gerontology, Haifa University, Israel.
*
Address for correspondence: Israel Doron, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, Department of Gerontology and School of Social Work Haifa University, Haifa, Israel, 31905. Email: idoron@univ.haifa.ac.il
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Abstract

Until now, no attempt has been made to develop a research tool to provide a broad descriptive picture of the actual knowledge that older people have of their legal rights. This article will describe a first attempt, conducted in Israel, to create such a tool, known as the Facts on Law and Ageing Quiz (FoLAQ). This quiz was developed to provide a short and standardised tool for assessing older people's knowledge of their legal rights in Israel. It is also intended to serve as a research platform for similar studies in other countries worldwide. The research was designed using a quantitative approach. The research population consisted of adult Jews, aged 50 or more years, living in the community in Israel. Using a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI), a randomly chosen sample of 227 persons aged 50 and over was asked 20 multiple-choice questions on central legal issues, and 13 closed questions on their socio-demographic background. The findings revealed that, in general, the majority of older persons in Israel know little about their legal rights. Specifically, the most vulnerable groups in this context were the less educated, the poor, the older-old, and women. Finally, the findings also showed that knowledge gaps were particularly obvious with regard to (1) national legal schemes covering social security in old age, and (2) the rights of older people regarding Israel's national health insurance scheme.

Keywords

lawlaw and ageingelder lawseniors' rightsfacts on law and ageingknowledge
Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 28 , Issue 8 , November 2008 , pp. 1159 - 1174
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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