Use of Social and Health Services by the Elderly

The differences in physical and social functioning between the elderly and the general population are likely to affect the utilization of social and health services we focus on two areas: (1) determining whether the elderly are affected by factors known to be important to service utilization among the general population; and (2) exploring the relationship between medical, mental health, personal care, and recreational services, and conceptually analogous factors. Results suggest that the elderly and the general population are similarly affected by need, enabling, and predisposing factors. Once need was taken into account, enabling and predisposing factors explained little variance in utilization of any services. With the exception of recreational services, both social and medical care service utilization can be explained by the same factors.