Loneliness-distress and physician utilization in well-elderly females

Two samples (N = 112 and 115) of females aged 65–85, recruited from senior centers and groups, were surveyed with respect to the determinants of their use of physician services. The results of the two samples are fairly consistent: (a) Sociodemographic variables are not useful in predicting physician utilization; (b) health status accounts for about 30% of the variance in frequency of visits; (c) psychosocial factors, in particular loneliness-distress, account for an additional 13%–14% of the variance in frequency of visits; (d) when subject to discriminant analysis, health status and psychosocial variables together correctly classify about 60% of the high utilizers (those in the top quarter of the sample in physician visit rate), with a less than 10% false-positive rate.