The aim of the present study was to investigate the quality of the intervie
w process that was used to obtain data on the prevalence of elder mistreatm
ent in order to improve the quality of this process in future research stud
ies. Audiotapes of interviews with 143 victims of elder mistreatment were t
ranscribed into verbatim protocols that were subsequently coded and analyze
d. The results of the present study show that despite the fact that all int
erviewers were carefully selected, intensively trained, and supervised duri
ng the interview period, 4.2% of the questions were skipped, and in 4.4% of
the interactions no usable answer was obtained. However, in all of these c
ases the interviewer did register an answer, the validity of which is quest
ionable. Considerable differences were found between interviewers with resp
ect to their performance and also between the various questions. Finally, s
uggestions are made to improve interviewer behavior.