[The WHOQOL-OLD].

The WHOQOL-OLD is an international cooperation of 22 research centres under the sponsorship of the WHO for the development of an intercultural instrument for the assessment of quality of life in old age. This article presents the results of the empirical investigations (field trial) for the German version of WHOQOL-OLD. Based on the results of the focus groups which were conducted in the first step of the project new items were generated and the dimensional structure was determined. Items were then tested and their number reduced using both classical and modern psychometric methods. A field trial was then carried out testing psychometric characteristics and standardization of the questionnaire. The outcome of this study is a 24-item 6-facet add-on module which can be used with the WHOQOL-BREF or the WHOQOL-100 for assessment of quality of life in older adults.