A priori, the Old Age Monitoring does not necessarily need to perform an own data collection in order to achieve its aim of documenting the living and health conditions of the elderly population in Switzerland. However, as long as no suitable dataset exists that allows the focus on the various cantons and that is published regularly in 2-3 year intervals, and also covering the wide range of topics that the project aims to include, the so-called Swiss Aging Survey (SAS) is carried out every 2-3 years. This section specifies the methodology for the SAS, which remains identical across each iteration.
The SAS is a nationally representative mixed-mode survey, whereas participants can choose between an online questionnaire and a phone-questionnaire.
