Developing a questionnaire for conducting cross-national studies--'Self-reported health and needs among elderly Iranians and Swedes'.

Purpose: This paper describes the process of developing and validating a questionnaire to investigate self-reported health and care needs of elders in Iran and Sweden.

Background: Both developing and developed countries face dilemmas under the current condition of increasing mental and physical health morbidity globally. In order to fully assess and understand the extent of these dilemmas and the global and local factors that alleviate or worsen them, a comparison of the self-reported health and care needs in a developed and a developing country is required.