DER DEUTSCHE ALTERSSURVEY (DEAS) WÄHREND DER CORONA-PANDEMIE: DESIGNANPASSUNGEN UND ENTWICKLUNGEN

The German Aging Survey (DEAS) is a representative longitudinal survey of people in the second half of life. Aging in the context of social change can be examined through the cohort-sequential design. Since 1996, women and men aged 40 years and older have been regularly interviewed in person (using computer-assisted personal interviewing, or CAPI) every six years, and since 2008 every three years, as well as with an additional self-administered questionnaire. At the beginning of 2020, the coronavirus began to spread in Europe. Due to the particular health risks posed by the pandemic to older individuals, there was both a substantive need and an ethical obligation for the DEAS to quickly respond to the changed situation in order to examine the impact of the pandemic on the lives of individuals in the second half of life. At the same time, survey participants and interviewers had to be protected from unnecessary risks, which meant that the 2020 DEAS survey could not be conducted face-to-face as planned. This led to a series of methodological adjustments, such as the administration of an additional short survey using a paper questionnaire with minimal lead time, the postponement of the main survey field phase including a mode switch (from CAPI to telephone), and modifications to the CAPI instrument for use on the phone. The focus was on panel respondents, and the planned survey of a newly drawn base sample was abandoned. This article discusses the effects of these adjustments on the design and implementation of the DEAS up to the current wave in 2023.